


Don’t Know What to Do (Without You)

by half_rice



Series: Modern Love [4]
Category: BLACKPINK (Band), 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Domestic, F/F, FEATURING CHOI YOOJUNG YOON SANHA AND CHOI SOOBIN AS KIDS, Fluff and Angst, Kid Fic, M/M, Multi, Post-Break Up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-08-23
Packaged: 2020-01-31 16:49:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 35,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18595417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/half_rice/pseuds/half_rice
Summary: The long-awaited (sorry) epilogue to the Jensoo romcom rompIf You Weren't So Stupid (I Could Have Loved You)Follow (almost) theentireModern Love cast as they stop a wedding, attempt to raise children, deal with a messy breakup, find missing persons, and extend this godforsaken series FOREVER AND EVER AMEN





	1. Jisoo’s Too Old for Couch Surfing

**Author's Note:**

> Just a few notes:  
> 1\. The beginning of this fic is set 3 years after the ending of If You Weren't So Stupid (aka 6 years after the ending of Don't Believe in Modern Love)  
> 2\. The Mature rating is 100% Yoonminseok's fault and as usual they hijacked the fic again  
> 3\. This was supposed to be 1 chapter but it's gone wild...  
> 

Jin doesn’t notice the doorbell over the sound of the washing machine running until his six-year old son Sanha tugs on his sleeve.

“Daddy.” Sanha says urgently.

“Uh-huh?” Jin asks in the middle of a yawn.

“Who’s that, Daddy?” Sanha points through the open doorway.

Jin follows Sanha’s line of sight to the silhouette hovering around the front windows. It’s nearly one in the morning, and the only reason why Jin’s awake at all at this time is because Sanha wet the bed again. Jin pats the boy on the head. “Hey Sanha, why don’t you go up and lie down next to Dad? It’s really late and you still have school tomorrow.”

The boy glances at the silhouette in the front windows, then up at Jin again. “Okay. Good night, Daddy.”

“Good night.” Jin bends over to accept a kiss on the cheek from his son. When the sound of Sanha’s feet padding up the stairs fades, he walks to the front door.

The doorbell rings again.

Jin peeks through the peephole. Then he heaves a sigh and opens the door. “You could’ve called, you know.”

“I _did_ try calling.” Jisoo grumbles as she drags a suitcase after her. Bits of lace and strings are sticking out of the zipper, which hasn’t been pulled all the way shut.

Jin frowns at the suitcase, then at his sister. “What happened?”

“Is your phone off?” Jisoo huffs as she lifts the suitcase up the step into the living room.

“Yeah, I don’t want it waking up the baby.” Jin takes the suitcase from his sister and starts making for the stairs.

“No, just leave it here. I’ll crash on the couch anyway.” Jisoo flops onto the couch.

“Jisoo-”

“I don’t want to wake the baby up either,” Jisoo’s already shedding her jacket and laying it over herself like a blanket. “Thanks for letting me stay over.”

“You’re welcome, but…” Jin starts, but the washing machine starts beeping from the laundry area. He looks at his sister again. Jisoo’s already shut her eyes, but Jin knows she’s probably not going to get any sleep tonight. Her brows have been furrowed since she’d walked into the house, and even in the dim light, her eyes seem swollen and red. “Good night, Jichu.”

“Good night.” Jisoo replies dryly, eyes still shut.

 

Yoojung looks from her breakfast to her Dad, who’s just drinking his black coffee like normal people drink water. _Normal._ She looks up at her Daddy, who’s trying to get her baby brother to put his porridge in his mouth and not all over the kitchen floor. _Normal._ Her other brother isn’t awake yet, no matter how hard their dads had tried to wake him up. _Also normal._

She taps her feet against the legs of her chair, glancing over at the couch, where her Auntie Jisoo is lying facedown on the cushions, still wearing outside clothes.

“Daddy?” She calls, because it makes sense to ask Auntie Jisoo’s brother why she’s here – not that Yoojung’s complaining. Auntie Jisoo’s cool and actually cares about fashion. _Unlike my dads…_

Yoojung’s painfully unfashionable Daddy’s too busy trying to feed her baby brother to notice her judging the way his sweater’s tucked into his lime green sweatpants.

Yoojung turns to frown at her Dad’s red checkered button-down shirt. “Dad.”

Her Dad manages to squeeze in one last gulp of coffee. “Yes?”

“Why is Auntie Jisoo here?”

“She’s staying over.” Her Dad replies without so much as a blink.

“I noticed that.” Yoojung nods over to her aunt’s pretty much comatose form. “But _why_?”

“Because…” Her Dad gives up and shrugs before taking another gulp of coffee. “She’s family, she doesn’t need a reason to be here.”

“She has her own apartment.” Yoojung says. “And it’s got a king-sized bed. Why would she want to sleep on our couch instead?”

Yoojung’s dad only smiles at that before tapping her Daddy on the elbow. “I have a breakfast meeting. I’ll be going now.”

“Okay.”

Yoojung looks down at her chocolate milk when her parents kiss each other. _They’re so embarrassing_.

“Dad, you can _not_ go to a breakfast meeting in that shirt.” Yoojung says.

Her Dad frowns down at his shirt. “Why? Does it have a hole in it?”

“It’s ugly.” Yoojung makes a gagging noise. “Like, _super_ ugly. Like, _Maybe we shouldn’t hire this graphic designer if he wears shirts like this_ kind of ugly.”

Yoojung’s Dad laughs and nudges his husband. “Jin. Do you think my shirt’s ugly?”

“No, I think it’s hot.”

“See, Yoojungie, he even thinks I look _hot_.” Yoojung’s Dad grins from ear to ear.

Yoojung looks at her other father in disdain. “ _Daddy._ ”

“I meant,” Her Daddy says quickly. “That the forecast for today is pretty hot, are you sure you want to wear long sleeves?”

“Whatever, Jin, it’s the middle of February.” Yoojung’s Dad keeps on grinning as he kisses her Daddy again. “You just think I’m hot.”

“You know I do,” Yoojung’s Daddy admits, his ears turning bright red. “Maybe I don’t wanna let you out of the house in that shirt after all.”

They both laugh at that, and Yoojung doesn’t bother understanding why.

Yoojung sighs as she downs the last of her chocolate milk. _My dads are hopeless._

 

Jisoo wakes up to the sound of a baby crying. She rolls over and stares at the water-stained ceiling for a moment, feeling the room spin around her in her confusion.

Then she remembers that she’s in her brother’s house, and _why_.

Jisoo groans and turns facedown on the couch cushions again. She wants to just sleep it out and find that everything’s back to normal when she wakes up, but she’s old enough to know that that never happens.

_And_ , Jisoo thinks as her back releases a series of cracks when she rolls over again, _I’m too old for this shit._

The crying stops, replaced by her brother’s low humming to some tune that probably hasn’t been heard on the radio in a decade.

_We’re all so old._

Jisoo sits up, feeling tears roll down her cheeks. She hadn’t even realized that she’d been crying. She covers her hands with the hems of her sweater sleeves and dries her face.

“ _Good morning, Auntie Jisoo_ ,” Jin says in a cartoony, high-pitched voice as he dances into the living room with the baby in his arms, holding up one of his chubby little hands to wave at Jisoo.

Jisoo can’t help but smile. “Hello, Soobinnie.”

Soobin purses his lips and frowns at her, snot still dribbling from his red little nose. He gives her this look that seems to say, _There’s no point in acting like you’re fine when you aren’t._

_Well, he’s got a point,_ Jisoo thinks as she gives one of the baby’s pudgy feet a light squeeze. “You’ve gotten so big since I last saw you.”

“ _Of course I have, Auntie Jisoo_.” Jin says, still in that weird voice. “ _That was half a year ago_.”

Jisoo frowns. “What, seriously?”

“Jennie’s birthday dinner.” Her brother says, in his own voice. “It was half a year ago.”

“Oh. Right.” Jisoo turns to go to the kitchen. “Everyone was there.”

“Of course we were,” Jin leans on the doorway to the kitchen, still bouncing Soobin in his arms. “Because _Jennie_ was thoughtful enough to invite everyone to her birthday.”

Jisoo groans as she pours herself a glass of water. “Come on, oppa, you can’t _still_ be mad about that.”

“I’m not _mad_.” Jin lifts the lid off a pot of congealing porridge. “Just upset. Do you want me to reheat the porridge?”

“I’ll eat it cold, thanks.” Jisoo takes a bowl out of the drawer and starts scooping some of the nearly-solid porridge into it. She hears her brother heave another dramatic sigh. _You can take the man out of the theater, but you can’t take the theater out of the man, is that it?_

Jisoo puts the bowl down on the table, hard. “Look, it wasn’t like you and everyone else could bring your kids to a fu- _freaking club_ , okay?”

“You didn’t _have_ to have your birthday at a club.” Jin says, taking the bowl from Jisoo and sliding it into the microwave before she can protest.

“I couldn’t force my friends to go to _Hoseok’s mom’s restaurant_ ,” Jisoo scoffs at the idea of her friends making faces at every greasy surface in Hoseok’s mom’s restaurant. “It’s not their scene.”

“Because they’re snobbish assholes?”

“Jin-oppa, you’ve never even met them in person.”

“I don’t need to meet them to know that they’re assholes.”

“They’re just… typical rich kids. But they’re not bad people.” Jisoo sighs. Her brother’s got that look on his face again, the one that let her know that her words are just coming in one ear and out the other.

He takes her porridge out of the microwave and sets it on the table in front of her. “Here you go.”

“Thanks.” Jisoo sits down and starts stirring the steaming porridge. _But you didn’t need to._

“I’d bet your _friends_ wouldn’t do that for you.” Jin mutters, lifting Soobin’s bib to dab at the snot running from his nose.

“Oppa.” Jisoo puts her spoon down. “It’s not a _competition_.”

“I just don’t see why they’re more important than _us_ -”

“ _It’s not a competition_!” Jisoo says again, without realizing how much she’s raised her voice. Soobin starts crying, and Jisoo sinks down into her seat, her stomach churning with a mix of shame and irritation.

Jin starts humming again, bouncing Soobin until the baby’s cries die down to little whimpers. He looks at Jisoo. “You’re right. It’s not a competition. Family should always come first.”

Jisoo blinks, feeling her eyes start to sting. “I know that. I just don’t see why having you guys should stop me from having other friends, too.”

“I’m sorry, Jisoo. It’s not that I want you to be with us all the time and never spend time with anyone else.” Jin sighs and hands his sister a tissue to dry her eyes before she rubs them out with the sleeves of her sweater. “But I just don’t think your other _friends_ are worth the fight.”

Jisoo buries her face in her hands, taking a deep breath of the steam from the porridge. “Well, that’s you and Jennie both.”

Jin had been walking out the doorway, but he stops in midstep. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“There’s not much to talk about.” Jisoo stirs her porridge absently.

“Well,” Jin says slowly. “Things always work out for the best.”

Jisoo glares at her brother then. She knows he doesn’t mean to be smug – he never _means_ to hurt anyone, that’s the problem with him – but standing there with his youngest son in his arms and giving Jisoo that gentle, pitying look is making Jisoo feels worse than she already did, though she didn’t think it was possible.

“Not everyone is like you and Yoongi-oppa.” Jisoo says, before taking a bite of the steaming porridge. Judging by the way he shrinks out of the kitchen, he’s going to be bothered by that all day.

_That’s the difference between us,_ Jisoo stuffs another spoonful of porridge in her mouth, though the spoon and the bowl and everything is starting to get blurry. _I always mean it when I hurt people._

 

_The night before_

“Jisoo.”

Jisoo ignores Jennie and keeps shoving things into her suitcase.

“Jisoo.” Jennie says again, her voice cracking. “ _Jisoo_!”

“ _What_?” Jisoo snaps at her, shutting the suitcase as she drags it towards the door. Never mind that the lace of one of her blouses is caught in the zipper or that she didn’t even finish zipping it up all the way.

“You don’t have to leave right now.” Jennie stands by the wall, fidgeting with the edge of her shirt while Jisoo knocks a whole row of shoes off the rack in frustration.

“Fuck!” Jisoo shouts, kicking through the pile of sneakers to find the pair to the one she’s holding.

“You can leave in the morning.” Jennie’s leaning against the wall now. Jisoo can see Jennie’s entire chin trembling, but that doesn’t stop her. “I’ll stay on the couch and-”

“And what? We’ll act like nothing’s wrong?” Jisoo fumbles with the lock on the door. “You said so yourself, we can’t do that anymore.”

Jennie chews on her lower lip. “But it’s the middle of the night.”

“As if you care.” Jisoo scoffs. “I’m _always_ out at this time anyway, right? Isn’t that what you were so mad about?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Go study for your exam or whatever. Don’t worry about me.” Jisoo says, lugging the suitcase out behind her.

When the door slams shut behind her, Jisoo waits. She’s still too angry to forgive at this point, but she’s not too angry to wait and see if Jennie will come back out to convince Jisoo to stay. _All I need is for her to try._

_She just needs to try._

Jisoo’s standing outside the door for a good five minutes before she realizes that Jennie isn’t going to try after all.


	2. Yeah, You Need To Tell Jisoo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Should I stop by there next?” Lisa asks.
> 
> “Don’t you have to go back to work?” Jennie asks. 
> 
> “Fuck work.” Lisa says.
> 
> “Lisa!” Chaeyoung squeaks. 
> 
> “I can get another job, but I can’t get another Jennie.”

_The trouble with med school,_ Jennie thinks as she drags herself into the university the next day. _Is that you still have to haul your ass in even though you feel like you’re dying._

“Hey… Jennie?”

Jennie finds her classmate giving her a half-terrified and half-sympathetic look, like a deer in headlights that’s worried about the dents it might put in your car. _It’d be kinda funny under any other circumstances_. “Hi Seulgi.”

“How… are you?”

“Good.” Jennie says.

“Well you look like crap.” Someone says from behind Jennie and Seulgi.

Jennie doesn’t need to turn around. “Thanks, Jinyoung.”

“Not that I care,” Jinyoung says. “But is there any reason why you look so crappy today?”

“I…” Jennie considers telling them the truth. They _are_ the closest thing she’s got to friends in med school, which means that the three of them would probably take a bullet or two for each other. _That still doesn’t mean they need to know everything about my life._

Jennie decides on saying, “I haven’t had coffee yet.”

“Oh, here, I’ve got some,” Seulgi pulls a thermos the size of her entire arm out of her backpack. “It’s just black with sugar, though.”

Jennie makes a face. “Thanks, but no thanks.”

“Can I have some of that?” Jinyoung asks, holding his hands out for Seulgi’s thermos. “I always get KO-ed by Dr. Kwak’s lectures.”

Seulgi hugs her thermos to her chest. “That’s because you’re a weak bitch. Get your own coffee.”

They both look to Jennie, who usually says something to break them up at this point, but Jennie just gives them a wan smile.

“Come on, let’s get good seats.”

 

Jennie tries to listen to Dr. Kwak’s lecture for a change, hoping it’ll take her mind off things. But he’s the type to drone on and on without caring if he makes any sense to the hundred or so students in front of him.

Her heart aches. And she’s too tired to make a funny medical term joke about it in her head.

Waking up that morning without Jisoo next to her was the worst. She hasn’t been able to actually sleep with Jisoo for the past few months now, because Jennie was always studying and Jisoo was always out trying keep her stupid friends amused. But Jisoo was always there in the morning when Jennie woke up for school. Jisoo wouldn’t get out of bed for a few hours more, but she’d roll over with that puffy, half-asleep smile that always made Jennie’s heart clench.

“Gmornrng,” Jisoo would mumble, fumbling around with her eyes till shut until she found Jennie and kissed whatever part of Jennie was closest (usually Jennie’s nose).

Jennie would come back to the bedroom to kiss Jisoo on the forehead before leaving. “I’m going now. I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Jisoo would manage to say in a string of incoherent mumbles about groceries.

_Isn’t that enough?_

_Why isn’t that enough?_

“Jennie, class is over.”

Jennie wakes up to Seulgi jabbing her arm on one side and Jinyoung kicking her shin on the other. Jennie scowls and brushes Seulgi’s hand away, then kicks Jinyoung in _his_ shin.

“We thought you were dead.” Jinyoung says, hopping away with his face contorted in pain.

“Sorry to disappoint.” Jennie grumbles. “Let’s go.”

 

Jennie manages to make her way through the day, and even agrees to go out and study with Seulgi for a few hours, but when it becomes obvious that Jennie’s mind isn’t open to anything at the moment, she politely excuses herself.

And goes home to an empty apartment.

_Don’t be such a drama queen, Jennie, this isn’t too out of the ordinary these days._ Jennie dumps her bag on the coffee table and starts sorting through the mail, wondering if Jisoo’s out clubbing with her friends.

_No, even Jisoo wouldn’t be able to do that._

_Would she?_

Jennie tosses the junk mail straight into the trash, one after the other without taking a second look at them.

She’s still got a stack of envelopes in one hand when the phone rings.

Jennie frowns at the caller ID before answering. “Hey Chaeyoung?”

“Ohmygoshhowareyouareyouokay?” Chaeyoung’s voice is shrill and panicked on the other end.

“Chae, I don’t know what you’ve heard, but I’m fine.”

“Really?” Chaeyoung heaves a loud sigh that crackles in Jennie’s ear. Jennie smiles despite everything. “Good. Whew. ‘Cause Yoonji was asking us if you’d really broken up with Jisoo and I was _so_ worried.”

“Oh, uh,” Jennie doesn’t know how she’s going to break it to Chaeyoung. Chaeyoung’s the type of person who’s saving dolphins for a living, you don’t just _tell_ her these kinds of things straight up. “We really did.”

“WHAT?” Lisa’s voice hollers out of nowhere.

Jennie jumps back a step. “Lisa? Are you there?”

“YEAH I’M VISITING CHAENG BUT THAT’S NOT THE POINT WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?”

“Jisoo and I broke up. Yesterday.” Jennie feels her lips trembling again. She wonders how long it’s going to be until she can say that without feeling like she’s about to cry.

“WHY THE HELL?”

“Lisa, come on, don’t scream at her-” Chaeyoung starts, before getting cut off.

“I HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE HURT, OKAY?”

“Don’t be insensitive to Jen-”

“IS JISOO THERE?” Lisa screams into the mic of Chaeyoung’s phone.

“WHAT KIND OF A DUMBASS QUESTION IS THAT?” Chaeyoung screams back at Lisa.

“YOU’RE A DUMBASS! DON’T TOUCH ME, I’M SAD AS FUCK RIGHT NOW, OKAY?”

“ _YOU’RE_ SAD AS FUCK? I’LL NEVER BE HAPPY AGAIN, BITCH!”

Jennie laughs. “Do you guys still need me?”

“Sorry.” Chaeyoung and Lisa say at once.  

Jennie lays on the couch. Her lip is trembling and her tears are starting well up again, but she manages to say, “I miss you guys.”

“We miss you too,” Chaeyoung says in a heartbeat.

“Should I stop by there next?” Lisa asks.

“Don’t you have to go back to work?” Jennie asks.

“Fuck work.” Lisa says.

“ _Lisa_!” Chaeyoung squeaks.

“I can get another job, but I can’t get another Jennie.”

Jennie smiles. “I love you too, Lisa.”

“I’m flying over tonight.” Lisa says firmly.

“We’re having barbecue for dinner tonight.” Chaeyoung reminds her.

“I’m flying over _first thing_ _tomorrow_.” Lisa corrects herself.

Jennie hears a muffled man’s voice, like he’s talking to Lisa and Chaeyoung from the next room.

“Oh, okay, okay. Will do, sir.” Chaeyoung’s voice sounds far from the phone. She comes closer to the phone again. “Sorry, Jennie, but we’ve got to go. We’re about to board the boat, and there’s no reception out there.”

“It’s okay.”

“We’ll try to call you as soon as we get back!” Lisa says.

“I hope things get better for you, Jennie.” Chaeyoung says.

“Bye, guys.”

“Bye! We love you!”

“Bye, Jennie, we miss you so much!”

Jennie puts the phone down on the table and sighs. _College seems so simple compared to everything now._

_How_ did _they find out we broke up?_

_Chaeyoung heard it from Yoonji, who probably heard it from her brother…_

Jennie heaves a sigh of relief when she realizes that Jisoo’s probably with her brother and not one of her friends. She crumples the stack of envelopes still in her hand, poised to toss them all, but they don’t crumple as easily as she’d expected them to.

Jennie sits up and rifles through them until she finds a thick cream-colored envelope with something written in gold.

_You are cordially invited to the wedding of Ms. Kwon Bo-ah and…_

 

“Jin.” Yoongi grabs Jin by the hem of his shirt.

“Mm-hm?” Jin asks, brows furrowed as he carefully shreds a slice of bread into pieces small enough for Soobin to hold.

“We need to talk.”

“Daddy, Sanha’s not eating his vegetables again.” Yoojung hums, crunching on her carrot sticks.

Sanha kicks at her knees under the table. “ _Noona_ ,” He hisses.

“Sanha, eat your fries.” Jin says, putting one of Sanha’s carrot sticks into his hand.

“I know this isn’t a real fry.” Sanha grumbles.

“Who told you that?” Jin asks, casting one accusatory glance at Yoojung, who’s innocently crunching away on her carrots.

“Jin.” Yoongi says tugging Jin’s shirt more urgently. “ _Now._ ”

“Okay, okay,” Jin makes a V with his fingers and points them at his own eyes then at Sanha. “Eat your vegetables.”

He follows Yoongi into the laundry room and frowns when Yoongi closes the door and locks it.

“Hey, I’ve still got Soobin.” Jin says, bouncing the baby chewing on bread in his arms. Soobin gurgles happily.

“Yeah, it’s okay, he won’t understand what we’re saying.”

“Oh.” Jin’s ears burn bright red. “Haha. Sorry, I thought…”

“Would I really want to-” Yoongi coughs, his cheeks getting red. “Right _now_ , really?”

“My bad, sorry.” Jin laughs.

“Anyway, give me Soobin.” Yoongi says, holding his arms out. “I don’t think you should be holding him when you read this.”

“Shit, Yoongi-yah, don’t scare me like this.” Jin says, passing Soobin over, though the latter seems too preoccupied with his bread to notice.

“I found this in the mail.” Yoongi hands him a cream envelope with something written on it in gold. “Is Jisoo back yet?”

“No, she said something about a work dinner…” Jin’s voice trails off as he flips through the heavy card inside adorned with gold and little crystals that look suspiciously like Swarvoski. “Is this… real?”

“I think some of it’s real gold leaf.”

“No, I mean, you’re not fucking- I mean, _messing_ with me?” Jin asks, flipping through the card again.

“No, Jin why would I joke about something like this?” Yoongi asks, looking visibly offended as he pats Soobin on the back. “Slow down, Binnie, you’ll get gassy.”

Yoongi steps forward in concern when Jin suddenly leans against the washing machine. “Jin?”

“W- We have to do something.” Jin stammers, pouting at Yoongi.

“Okay,” Yoongi pats Jin gently on his lower back, like he’s just another Soobin. “Like what?”

“We have to tell Jisoo.”


	3. Yoonji’s Back Bitches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Keys!” Yoonji barks at him, crumpling his collar in her fist and giving him another hard shake. “Now!”
> 
> “Okay, okay, fine, what the fuck,” The guy reaches into his pocket and throws something towards the dance floor. “Now let go before I call the fucking police!”
> 
> “As if you’d tell the police you nearly got your ass kicked by a woman who’s barely five feet tall.” Yoonji scoffs between huffs for breath. She can’t believe she’s winded just from roughing someone up, and there’s no way she’s going to bend over to pick these goddamn keys up. She kicks them over to Jisoo. “Come on, Jisoo, let’s go home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everyone's favorite bitch is back

**Fat Brother:** Are you busy right now?

**Fat Brother:** Christ Yoonji why is my name like this?

**Fat Brother:** Change it

**Sexy Sister:** oh come on

**Sexy Sister:** you ARE getting kinda fat don’t deny it

**Sexy Sister:** I saw your new profile pic your jaw is completely gone

**Fat Brother:** Whatever we don’t have time for this

**Fat Brother:** We need your help we can’t find Jisoo

**Sexy Sister:** what the FUCK

**Fat Brother:** I’ll call you

 

“Hey Yoonji?”

“Hi, hello, yeah,” Yoonji sits up slowly. She’s been lying in bed dreading the moment when Hoseok comes home, but she’s not about to tell her brother about that. “What the hell is going on?”

“We need to find Jisoo. Is Jimin there?”

“No, he’s still in Japan.” _Thank fuck he is._

“Hoseok?”

“Still at the restaurant.” Yoonji says, hoping she doesn’t sound too tense about it. He hadn’t told her when he was coming home, and for once she’s hoping her decides not to tonight. “What happened to Jisoo?”

“Their dad is getting married.”

Yoonji makes a face. “How is that an emergency?”

“He’s getting married to the woman who kidnapped Jisoo.”

Yoonji jumps out of bed. “What the _fuck_?”

“We need to tell her right away, but we can’t contact her-”

“Have you tried Jennie?”

“I-” Yoongi coughs pointedly on the other end. “They broke up. She probably doesn’t know where Jisoo is, either.”

“What the _hell_?” Yoonji has to sit down again. “They _broke up_?”

“I don’t know what happened there either, but Jin’s freaking out and we really need your help right now.”

Yoonji looks down. She knows that she has problems of her own – a _huge_ problem of her own – and that she really can’t be running around looking for her stupid sister-in-law at this time. _But the best way to avoid your own problems is to get involved in other people’s problems, right?_

“I’ll ask around the bars and stuff. She’s probably out getting shitfaced.”

“Okay, thanks, Yoonji.” Her brother sounds so relieved on the other end that Yoonji can just imagine his double-chinned smile. _Cute fatass._ “Call us if you find anything, okay?”

“Okay.”

 

“Min Yoonji! Long time no see!”

“For good reason.” Yoonji rolls her eyes at the bartender’s broad smile. She cringes at the idea that she used to actually walk into places like this on her own free will. Everything is dark and sweaty and smells like cigarettes and vomit, among other things.

“How’s being a good girl working out for you?” The bartender asks, grinning down at Yoonji’s jeans and bomber. “Never seen you so covered-up bef-”

“Eat shit, dude, I’m just looking for my sister-in-law.” Yoonji zips her bomber up self-consciously as she flashes her a photo on her phone. “Have you seen her?”

“She’s cute, but no.”

“She’s taken.” Yoonji says, before she remembers that no, Jisoo actually isn’t. _That’s going to take some getting used to._

She frowns at the sickly-sweet smell of badly mixed drinks. _I need a drink right now._

_No. No drink._

Yoonji spins on her heel and starts shoving her way out of the bar.

“See you around!” The bartender calls after Yoonji.

“I hope not!” Yoonji shouts back as she shoves the door open. She checks her phone, where she’s just sent messages to around thirty people she’d sworn to never speak to again. A bunch of them just said various forms of “no sorry”, while another bunch just didn’t reply. The trouble is that most of them thought it was some kind of booty call, and are asking Yoonji if she wants to “catch up”.

_Why was I such a slut?_ Yoonji groans internally, leaning against a streetlamp while she scrolls through her messages.

She’s about to walk into the last bar on the street when she stubs her toe on something. “Son of a bitch.”

The lump on the grimy sidewalk groans and lurches forward, but not up.

Yoonji nudges it with her toe, and it rolls over.

_Oh god._

“Hey, you.” Yoonji looks up at the dark, hazy sky. “Are you punishing me for being such a slut before? Because I thought that shit was supposed to happen _after_ I died?”

“Mahedhuurrss,” The lump on the sidewalk groans.

“Bitch, get the fuck up,” Yoonji kicks the lump.

“Help me up.” Jisoo whines, holding her hands out to Yoonji.

Yoonji sets her jaw. “Help yourself up.”

“Yooonjiii, help me uuuup!” Jisoo whines louder, kicking the sidewalk like a toddler having a tantrum.

Yoonji thinks about it for a moment, then she sighs and reaches for Jisoo’s hands. She grunts loudly as she drags Jisoo to her feet, and finds herself winded afterwards. Yoonji bends over gasping for air. _Oh god, this is awful_. _Bad idea._

“Yoonji? Are you okay?” Jisoo asks, placing a hand on Yoonji’s back, hard. It’s more of a slap. Yoonji tries to resist the urge to slap Jisoo back.

Yoonji doesn’t try very hard.

“Ow!” Jisoo whines, holding a hand up to her reddening cheek. “What was that for?”

“You-” Yoonji huffs. “-made me _lift_ \- Damn it.”

“Holy shit, what’s happening, please don’t die,” Jisoo says, starting to dance around on her heels. Well, one and a half heels. Her left heel has snapped off.

_What a trainwreck,_ Yoonji thinks as she manages to straighten herself up again. “There’s no way I’m bringing you back to your brother like this.”

Jisoo chews on her lip. “Sorry.”

Yoonji rubs her back, groaning. Her feet are already complaining about the walk to the bus stop and she hasn’t even started yet. “Jisoo. Do you have a car?”

“No, my friend borrowed it.”

“Your friend did _what_?” Yoonji growls.

“He borrowed it for the night-”

“Your richass friends don’t have cars on their own?” Yoonji slaps Jisoo again, this time on the arm. “What’s his name? Where does he live?”

“What?” Jisoo makes a face. “Why?”

“We’re getting your car back.”

 

“Please just hand over the keys, dude, it’s not worth it.”

Yoonji rounds the corner cracking her knuckles. This is a pretty nice club, even if the lights are a blinding neon blue and they’re giving Yoonji a migraine. _It doesn’t look like a rat’s nest, at least._

“Dude, just give me the keys, please-” Jisoo’s tugging on the arm of some well-dressed guy, the kind of guy who looks like he thinks a  9-to-5 is a kind of sex position.

Yoonji’s favorite type of guy to beat up.

“HEY!” Yoonji shouts, earning less confused looks from the other clubbers than she’d expecting. _I’m losing my touch._

The guy turns around, and so does Jisoo, looking horrified.

“Yoonji, don’t-”

Yoonji shoves the guy back against the nearest wall. “Give her her keys back.”

“Who the fuck are you?”

“I’m Jisoo’s sister-in-law.” Yoonji grabs a handful of the guy’s collar. The threadcount of his shirt feels heavenly in her fist. She’s wonders for a split second where he’d bought it, because she’d been planning on buying Jimin a new shirt because that blue one he’s always wearing getting worn out and-

“Jisoo, get your _psycho_ sister-in-law off of me!”

Jisoo stands a couple meters away, hands raised in surrender. “I _did_ warn you.”

Yoonji gives him a rough shakedown. “The keys, now.”

“Let go-”

“Keys!” Yoonji barks at him, crumpling his collar in her fist and giving him another hard shake. “ _Now!_ ”

“Okay, okay, fine, what the fuck,” The guy reaches into his pocket and throws something towards the dance floor. “Now let go before I call the fucking police!”

“As if you’d tell the police you nearly got your ass kicked by a woman who’s barely five feet tall.” Yoonji scoffs between huffs for breath. She can’t believe she’s winded just from roughing someone up, and there’s no way she’s going to bend over to pick these goddamn keys up. She kicks them over to Jisoo. “Come on, Jisoo, let’s go home.”

 

“Here.” Yoonji thrusts a pile of clothes and a towel in Jisoo’s arms as soon as they get to Yoonji’s apartment. “Take a shower and stuff.”

“I don’t think we’re the same size.” Jisoo says softly, frowning down at the clothes in her arms.

“I’ve gotten pretty fucking fat lately, you’ll fit.” Yoonji says, all but shoving Jisoo to the bathroom.

Yoonji sinks into the couch when she hears the shower start running. She’s so tired it’s ridiculous, and her feet feel ready to just explode. She rests them on top of the coffee table, groaning.

 

“Yoonji?”

Yoonji jolts awake, finding Jisoo squatting by the side of the couch, tapping her shoulder.

“I’m done with the shower, if you wanna use it?” Jisoo says, toweling through her damp hair.

“Did I fall asleep?” Yoonji asks.

“Yeah.”

“What the hell.” Yoonji stands up, resting one hand on her back as she does. “Fuuuuck.”

“Are you okay?” Jisoo asks.

Yoonji glares at her. “I should be asking you the same question.”

“I’m fine.” Jisoo says tensely.

“Then why did I find you rolling around on one of the grossest sidewalks in the whole fucking city?” Yoonji drags her feet to the kitchen to pour herself a glass of water.

“It’s not like _you_ have any right to judge me.”

Yoonji takes a gulp of water. _Fucking kids._

“The whole point of me telling you off for being a mess is that I don’t want you to end up a mess like me,” Yoonji says, picking up one of Jimin’s books off the counter and tossing it in Jisoo’s general direction. “The whole reason why I have _every_ right to tell you not to do stupid shit is because I’ve done it all before and I don’t want you to end up like this!”

Jisoo picks the book off the floor. “Are you… okay?”

“Of course I’m _not_! I’m _not_ okay and I need a drink but I can’t have one and Hoseok could walk in there any minute and I don’t know what I’ll say to him- _Have you called your brother?_ ”

“Yeah, I did while you were asleep. I, uh, told him I’d be staying here.” Jisoo grimaces in mild embarrassment. “I- If you don’t mind.”

Yoonji takes a deep breath.

Then she reaches down and hurls one of her bedroom slippers at her sister-in-law, nailing Jisoo right in the center of her forehead.

Jisoo sits there, stunned as a red mark starts welling up on her forehead. “Holy shit, Yoonji, that’s like, _mom powers_.”

_NO NO NO NO NO_. Yoonji slumps facedown on the kitchen counter, groaning. “Jisoo.”

“What?” Jisoo’s rubbing her forehead, too amazed to be hurt.

“You’re a fucking idiot.”

Jisoo’s shoulders sag. “I know.”

Yoonji looks up. _Jisoo’s usually a mess, but she’s never been_ this _much of a mess_.

“What happened with you and Jennie?”

 

_6 months ago_

“Earth to Kim Jisoooo,” Jennie says in an annoying sing-song voice.

Jisoo keeps frowning at her laptop. “Wait, not now, I’m busy.”

Jennie sits on the edge of Jisoo’s desk. “What’s that?”

“Accounting.” Jisoo grunts. She hears Jennie’s voice going on and on about something or the other, but whatever it is, Jisoo doesn’t really care.

Jisoo tries to pull out a folder from under Jennie’s ass. “Excuse me.”

“Sorry.” Jennie hops off the desk. “Is there any way I can help?”

“Yeah. Stop talking.” Jisoo starts flipping through the papers inside the folder, scanning for some report that suddenly felt like _not existing._

Jisoo only hears the door to her office slam shut. She looks down at the spreadsheet on her laptop and it seems to look back at her like, _Why do you even bother?_

After a few minutes of looking for a report that Jisoo figures never existed to begin with, she shuts the lid of her laptop and gets up, rubbing the back of her neck as she makes her way to the frosted glass door. She twists the knob slowly. “Jennie?”

Jennie’s sitting in Jisoo’s secretary’s seat, spinning around while she plays some game on her phone. She’s concentrating so hard that her mouth is pulled into a flat line, pushing on her cheeks to make a wide little H on her face.

Jisoo smiles. “Jendeuk.”

Jennie stops spinning to face Jisoo, still frowning at her game. “You done?”

“Not yet.” Jisoo reaches out with her foot to hook the legs of Jennie’s chair and pull her closer. “What are you playing?”

“I don’t even know what it’s called, but Jinyoung’s score is higher than mine and I can’t live with that.”

“Of course you can’t.” Jisoo laughs.

Jennie makes a face when a notification comes over her game. “Oh. Yoonji and the others are there already. Shall we?”

“What? Where?” Jisoo frowns at Jennie.

“At the restaurant.”

Jisoo feels like there’s this big empty space between her ears right now. “Restaurant…?”

“Hoseok’s mom’s restaurant.” Jennie says slowly. “For my _birthday_?”

“Oh.” Jisoo backs up into the door. _Oh fuck._ “Right.”

Jennie grins and pokes Jisoo in the stomach. “Come on, dum-dum, let’s go.”

“You go on ahead.” Jisoo says. “I still have something to finish.”

“Finish it tomorrow,” Jennie laughs, poking Jisoo again.

“I can’t finish it _tomorrow_ , I need to send it _tomorrow_ ,” Jisoo snaps.

“Okay, okay.” Jennie gets up, straightening out her skirt. “Don’t be too late, okay?”

“I won’t.” Jisoo says, her face warming up when Jennie kisses her on the cheek. It’s not that she isn’t used to that, it’s that she’s embarrassed out of her mind that she’d completely forgotten about her girlfriend’s birthday when they’ve known each other for almost twenty years.

“See you in a while.” Jennie pats Jisoo’s but lightly before walking towards the elevator, laughing. “Don’t work too hard, CEO Kim.”

“Speak for yourself, Dr. Kim.” Jisoo calls back.

Jennie laughs all the way into the elevator.


	4. Jisoo is QUEEN (of bad descisions)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “No, I’m staying away from caffeine.” Yoonji opens the refrigerator and slides the can back inside.
> 
> “Wow, really? You?” Jisoo finds herself laughing at the idea of Yoonji actually attempting to be healthy.
> 
> “Why is that so hard to believe?” Yoonji snaps. 
> 
> “Because you’re you.” Jisoo makes a face. “You’re like, the queen of bad decisions.”
> 
> “Wow, thanks.”
> 
> Jisoo sighs as she sinks back onto the couch. “I think I’ve dethroned you, though.”

_Present_

 

Yoongi and Jin both jump to their feet when the doorbell rings.

Yoongi pulls the door open. “Your brother hasn’t been able to _eat_ -”

“Ji- _Jennie_?” Jin frowns.

“Hi.” Jennie shifts from one sneaker to the other. “Sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing?” Jin frowns.

Yoongi nudges him with his elbow. “You wanna come in?”

“No, no thanks, sorry.” Jennie chews on the inside of her cheek. “I’m guessing Jisoo isn’t here?”

“No, she’s not.” Yoongi replies.

They stand there for some time, the cold wind whistling in through the front door.

“Do you want to come in?” Yoongi asks again, rubbing his arms.

“No thanks.” Jennie reaches into her coat’s inner pocket and hands something to him. “Please give this to Jisoo.”

Yoongi takes the cream-colored envelope from her, looking up at Jin with his mouth in a thin, straight line.

Jin looks back at Jennie, who’s still shifting from one foot to the other. “Jennie-”

“I think I should go.”

“Oh. Okay.” Jin says. “Take care out there, okay?”

“You too.”

They stand there at the doorway until Jennie rounds the corner, probably off to the main street to catch the bus. Jin feels Yoongi’s fingers twitch, so he takes one of Yoongi’s hands in his.

“I know she’ll be okay,” Yoongi squeezes Jin’s hand. “So is it dumb of me to still be worried?”

“Yeah, it is.” Jin presses his nose into Yoongi’s temple. “I guess both of us are dumb, then.”

Yoongi leans against Jin. “Can we close the door? It’s fucking freezing out there.”

 

Jennie turns up the heater as soon as she gets back into the apartment.

_I’ll get used to this,_ she reminds herself as she shrugs her coat off onto the rack. _It’s going to be normal before I know it._

_And it’s not so different from when I get home and Jisoo’s still out with her friends,_ Jennie reasons with herself as she mixes herself an instant coffee. She sits at her desk and opens her textbook to the tab she’d stopped at the night before.

Then she gets caught up remembering why she hadn’t gotten past a single chapter the night before.

 

_The night before_

Jennie looks up from her book as the front door closes. “Jisoo?”

“Hey.” Jisoo shrugs her coat off and her clutch on the floor before laying facedown on the couch.

Jennie stands up. “Are you drunk?”

“Nnnuh,” Jisoo groans.

Jennie walks over and squats next to the couch, trying to roll Jisoo on her side. She isn’t really looking for anything, but she gets a whiff of Jisoo’s breath and frowns.

Jennie clamps her hand around one of Jisoo’s forearms, shaking it. “Jisoo.”

“Whaaat?” Jisoo tries to pry Jennie’s hand off, but it stays clamped on. “Owww, that hurts.”

“Have you been smoking?”

Jisoo opens her eyes to scowl at Jennie, then slap Jennie’s hand off. “No! What the hell, Jennie.”

“Your breath smells-”

“Gee, _you_ try hanging out with Bambam without ending up smelling like crap.” Jisoo chuckles.

Jennie grabs Jisoo’s forearm again. “Are you high?”

“No, god, what are you, the police?” Jisoo shoves Jennie’s hand away and sits up, scowling. “My friends were smoking it up or whatever you call it. I wasn’t.”

“But you were _there_.”

“But I _didn’t do anything_!”

“You still breathed it in and-”

“Jesus, Jennie, you almost make me miss living with my mom!”

“-and you _drove_!” Jennie shouts, smacking the empty stretch of couch next to Jisoo. “What if something had happened!”

“Nothing happened! _God_ , Jennie, leave me alone!” Jisoo pushes Jennie out of the way as she storms off to the kitchen.

“Jisoo!” Jennie follows her. “We’re not done talking about this!”

“There’s nothing _to_ talk about. You think my friends are trash, I know.” Jisoo opens the fridge and cracks open a can of peach soda.

“I don’t _think_ they’re trash, they _are_ trash, and you shouldn’t hang out with them-”

“You can’t tell me who to hang out with!” Jisoo slams the soda down on the counter so hard that some sloshes out onto her hand. “Do I tell you what to do? Do I tell you to stay away from your friends?”

“That’s different!” Jennie crosses her arms. “My friends aren’t anything like _yours_.”

“Right, because you don’t do anything wrong.” Jisoo takes a sip of her soda, ignoring the sticky puddle she’s left on the countertop. “You can _never_ do anything wrong.”

“Don’t be like this, Jisoo, I’m just worried about you-”

“No, don’t pretend it’s because you’re so _worried_ about me.” Jisoo makes little finger quotes in the air. “If you really cared about me you’d bother to – I don’t know – actually try to see me more?”

Jennie feels her face grow warm with embarrassment. “I’ve been really busy.”

“So have I, but _I’ve_ been trying to make time for you. For the both of us.” Jisoo says. “What have _you_ been doing?”

“I’m sorry I can’t be there all the time, Jisoo,” Jennie takes a deep breath. “But we talked about this.”

“Oh, yeah, you said you’d have less time for me, not _no time at all_.” Jisoo scoffs. “Sometimes I forget I even have a girlfriend!”

Jennie takes another breath. Her chest is starting to ache. “I don’t want to fight you, Jisoo. Especially not when you aren’t sober.”

“Not that again.” Jisoo groans. “I _am_ sober. I _didn’t_ smoke anything and I just had a _few_ drinks, and it’s _not_ as big of a fucking deal as you make it out to be! So fuck off, okay?”

Jennie backs up against the fridge. One part of her wants to say, _this isn’t Jisoo, she’s not in a good state of mind right now_ , but the other part, this terrible, niggling part of her knows that Jisoo means every word she’s saying.

“I’m sorry.” Jennie says to cut off the silence. “I didn’t mean to start anything. I’m just tired.”

“ _You’re_ tired?” Jisoo takes another sip of her soda. “I’m probably a hundred times more tired than you are.”

“Maybe if you didn’t go out so often-”

“There you go again with telling me what to do.” Jisoo groans. “Just stop, okay? I’m not just tired from going out. I’m tired of _you_.”

Jennie finds herself leaning against the fridge for support. “You don’t mean that.”

“I do.” Jisoo sighs, her voice dropping to almost a whisper. “I’m so tired of all this, Jennie.”

“You never said anything.”

“Were you there to listen?” Jisoo finishes her soda and crumples the can. “No, you were always too busy.”

“I’m sorry I don’t have enough time to be there for you.” Jennie says. “But I don’t have a choice-”

“You chose to go into med school.” Jisoo says. “No one made you do it.”

“I know, and I don’t regret it-”

“So it’s your fault if you can’t balance it with your life.”

Jennie looks up at Jisoo, her eyes starting to sting. “Are you making me choose between you and school?”

“No, but if you can’t handle both,” Jisoo tosses the can into the recycling bin. “Then you have to choose.”

Jennie starts picking at the chipping paint on the refrigerator door knob. “I can’t do that.”

“Well, let me help you out. You already have.” Jisoo stares Jennie down. “Between studying for your exams and going with me to the women in business event, which one did you choose?”

“Jisoo, I really didn’t have a choice-”

“You have exams every week.” Jisoo says. “Do I get invited to things like that every week? And do you think I really wanted to be at a place like that alone?”

“I’m sorry, Jisoo, I told you, I’m so sorry, but it’s not that I don’t care about you.” Jennie chews on the inside of her cheek. “But you have to come second sometimes.”

“ _Sometimes_? I can’t even remember the last time you put me first.” Jisoo says. “It’s like we’re not even dating anymore – You won’t even go on _dates_ with me! I’ve just been brushing it off and acting like everything’s normal-”

“Then let’s stop acting like everything’s normal. We can’t do that anymore, and we shouldn’t.” Jennie says. “Let’s lay everything out and just be honest-”

“Honestly, Jennie?” Jisoo sighs. “If I’m going to be completely honest with you? I think we should end this.”

Jennie frowns. “What?”

“I think we should just end it. If neither of us is happy with how things are anymore and we’re just getting on each other’s nerves…” Jisoo shrugs. “We should just stop.”

“Shouldn’t we at least give it a try?” Jennie finds herself pleading.

“Sorry, Jennie, but I’ve not seen you _try_ in a long time, and I don’t think you’re going to start anytime soon.”

Jennie’s so frustrated she wants to punch the refrigerator door in, but she just furls her hands into fists. “ _I’m_ not trying? _You’re_ the one who quits when things aren’t going your way. You’re the one who can’t stand it when people try to correct you-”

“Are you calling me a brat?”

“You’re the one who said that.”

“You really think you’re so great, huh?” Jisoo storms out of the kitchen. “You never do anything wrong? Okay, fine, it’s _my_ fault. It’s all my fault. I’m the bad one, I’m the brat – What else do you want to call me?”

“Jisoo, that’s not what I-”

“Shut up. Just shut up.” Jisoo’s voice comes from inside the bedroom.

Jennie nudges the door open to find Jisoo dragging a suitcase out from the back of her closet. “What are you doing?”

“What does it look like?” Jisoo says, throwing her clothes – hangers and all – haphazardly into the suitcase. “I’m doing you a favor. I’m getting one problem out of your life.”

 

_Present_

 

“No thanks.” Jisoo says, when Yoonji tries to hand her a can.

“It’s just a Coke.” Yoonji asks, juggling the can gently from one hand to the other. “No way am I giving you _more_ alcohol.”

“Yeah, god knows I don’t need any more of that.” Jisoo laughs dryly. “But no thanks. You can drink if you like.”

“No, I’m staying away from caffeine.” Yoonji opens the refrigerator and slides the can back inside.

“Wow, really? _You_?” Jisoo finds herself laughing at the idea of Yoonji actually attempting to be _healthy_.

“Why is that so hard to believe?” Yoonji snaps.

“Because you’re you.” Jisoo makes a face. “You’re like, the queen of bad decisions.”

“Wow, thanks.”

Jisoo sighs as she sinks back onto the couch. “I think I’ve dethroned you, though.”

Yoonji sits down next to her, hands folded in her lap in a strangely demure way. “Jennie?”

“Oh, no, breaking up with Jennie’s one of the best decisions I’ve made in a while.” Jisoo says, nodding aggressively like she’s trying to convince herself. _I’m already convinced though, so what’s the point?_ “I should’ve done that a long time ago.”

“You can’t seriously mean that.”

“I do. Dating her’s always made me feel like a bad guy, now more than ever.” Jisoo leans her head back until it’s against the wall. “It was never fair from the start.”

Yoonji’s picking at her fingers in a way that worries Jisoo a little bit. Yoonji’s the type to pick at everything – even her nose – in public without giving a flying fuck who sees her, but she never does it frantically like she’s doing it now.

“Yoonji?”

“I know what you mean.” Yoonji says softly. “Feeling like it’s not fair.”


	5. Yoonji Don’t Wanna Hear She’s Been Acting Different

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I don’t like needing more everything.” Yoonji sighs. “Maybe I don’t need more than you two?”
> 
> “Oh, you definitely do.” Jimin says, pulling Yoonji’s pajama bottoms down to her ankles.
> 
> “Jimin, you have a flight in three hours.” Yoonji says, frowning as she gently tilts Jimin’s face away from her. 
> 
> “Yeah, and they don’t serve in-flight snacks.” Jimin says, burying his face between her legs.

_Earlier that day_

Yoonji’s wide awake when she hears the comforter rustle behind her.

“I need you.” Hoseok murmurs behind Yoonji’s ear, his arms curling around her waist to pull her closer.

Yoonji’s facing away from him, feeling his body sidle up behind hers. She inches forward and hugs her pillow more tightly. “I, uh, have an early meeting today.”

“We can make it fast.” Hoseok smiles as he kisses the back of Yoonji’s neck.

“No thanks.”

“Okay.” Hoseok says, sounding dejected as he sits up. It makes Yoonji wants to flip over and give him what he wants, because she knows that there’s a part of her that _really_ wants what he wants, too, but the rest of her is afraid.

She’s felt pretty divided lately, and she hates it.

“I’ll suck you off.” Yoonji offers.

“But I want to be inside you.” Hoseok sighs.

“You’ll still be inside me. Just a different hole, is all.” Yoonji says quickly, already crawling down until her face is level with the hem of Hoseok’s pajamas.

“But I want to make you feel good, my lady,” Hoseok holds Yoonji by the waist and pulls her up into his lap. His fingers grip _that_ part, and Yoonji tenses up. She’s afraid again, and she curses herself internally when she sees the concerned look on Hoseok’s face. “What’s wrong?”

“I just don’t feel like it today.”

“Do you have cramps?” Hoseok rubs the lower half of Yoonji’s abdomen soothingly. “I can help-”

“No.” Yoonji brushes his hands away rather roughly. “I mean, no thanks. I really don’t want to be late for my meeting.”

“Okay,” Hoseok smiles and kisses Yoonji softly on the lips. “Go get em, Tiger.”

Yoonji smiles back, but she’d seen how his smile hadn’t reached his eyes. Neither does hers.

 

_A month earlier_

“Don’t bring that shirt.” Yoonji says, perched on the edge of the bed while Jimin lays his clothes out on it. “It’s full of holes.”

“Which one?” Jimin asks, gently sorting through his shirts.

Yoonji reaches over and picks up a light blue button-down with her foot. “This-”

“Jesus, Yoonji, keep your feet away,” Jimin says, swatting Yoonji’s feet out of the way. “I just ironed these.”

Yoonji just holds onto the baseboard for support and keeps rifling through Jimin’s clothes with her toes. “I bought you a new shirt last week. Where is it?”

“Yoonji. Feet.” Jimin grumbles, trying to hold Yoonji’s feet off his clothes.

“Stop it that tickles!” Yoonji squeaks, trying to kick free of Jimin’s grasp. “Stop- _Fuck_!”

Yoonji tumbles off the bed and onto the floor, taking Jimin down with her.

The bedroom door swings open, and Hoseok peeks in, eyes wide. “You guys okay?”

Jimin’s still facedown in Yoonji’s stomach, rubbing a sore elbow that had knocked into the floor. “No.”

“Sorry.” Yoonji says, patting Jimin lightly on the head.

 “Come on, my lady, let Jimin finish packing,” Hoseok says, helping them to their feet. “What time is your flight again tomorrow?”

“9AM.” Jimin says, bending over the bed to straighten his clothes out.

Yoonji snatches the light blue button-down before Jimin can lay it in his suitcase.

“Yoonji, _seriously._ ” Jimin frowns.

Yoonji shakes her head.

Hoseok gives her a hard stare.

“Fine.” Yoonji throws the shirt back at Jimin, who immediately lays it on the bed and starts pressing it out with his fingers. “But it’s full of holes.”

“They’re not noticeable, and I don’t have enough to be picky.” Jimin says.

“Which is why you should’ve bought another one last weekend.” Yoonji says, holding the suitcase open while Jimin lays an armful of slacks inside.

“Hoseok.” Jimin says, looking to Hoseok for help.

Hoseok sighs and winds an arm around Yoonji’s waist. “Come on, let’s let him finish packing.”

“We can still go out and buy you another shirt-” Yoonji protests, hanging onto the doorframe while Hoseok drags her out of the room.

“Yoonji.” Hoseok warns her.

“Fine.” Yoonji lowers her head and lets go of the doorframe, letting Hoseok all but carry her out.

 

“What are you doing?”

Yoonji whirls around when all the lights turn on, her eyes wide like a cat caught pawing through someone’s trash.

Jimin sighs and squats on the floor next to her. “You really don’t know how to let things go, do you?”

“I just don’t want them to judge you.” Yoonji says, pulling the light blue shirt out of the suitcase lying open in front of her. She balls it up and throws it in the nearest trash bin, which is across the room. She grins at that. _Still haven’t lost my touch._

Jimin’s folds the clothes back in and zips up the suitcase. “No one’s going to notice a fucking microscopic hole under my collar, Yoonji.”

“Maybe they will.” Yoonji says, helping Jimin push the suitcase to the side of the home office. Well, _her_ home office. She was the only one of the three of them who could work from home, and even though she’d insisted it was a shared space, pretty much all the stuff in here was hers now. “Japanese people are judgey.”

“I’m going to ignore how racist that was,” Jimin extends a hand to help Yoonji up. “Because it’s late and we should both get some sleep.”

Yoonji just nods and follows Jimin out of the – _her_ home office.

“Jimin?” She asks, stopping outside the bedroom door.

“Yeah?”

Yoonji frowns. “Why is the code to your suitcase my-”

Jimin cuts her off with a kiss. “Because I think Yoongi-hyung is great, obviously.”

Yoonji flicks him in the stomach. “Change it to Hoseok’s birthday.”

“Why?”

“Because… Because…” Yoonji makes a face. “Just _because_.”

“He’s a big boy, he’s not going to get jealous over a suitcase lock.” Jimin snickers, pinching Yoonji under her arm. “ _You’re_ the one who would.”

Yoonji shrugs his hand away. “I would _not_.”

“ _I would_ not _,_ ” Jimin mimics her voice with a shit-eating grin.

“Stop that.” Yoonji whines, flicking Jimin on the stomach again.

“You’re such a big baby.” Jimin chuckles, putting his arms around her. He buries his face in her neck. “I’m going to miss you so much.”

“And Hoseok.” Yoonji says, frowning when Jimin unhooks the first button of her nightshirt with his teeth.

Jimin undoes another two buttons before looking up. “What’s up with you?”

“We can’t leave him out.” Yoonji puts her hands on Jimin’s shoulders when he kneels in front of her.

“We’re not leaving him out.” Jimin unhooks another button with his teeth, and as much as Yoonji wants to stop him, she can’t do anything but stare. “Why are you so worried about that?”

“It’s not really that,” Yoonji says, her grip on Jimin’s shoulders tightening when he unhooks the last button on her shirt. “I just don’t like the way you two give me too much- Oh god, that felt good.”

Jimin stops, resting his nose against the base of Yoonji’s stomach. “We don’t give you too much.”

“You let me have an entire room.” Yoonji wags a hand in the general direction of the – no, _her_ home office. “And a whole closet while you two are sharing one, and you’re always-”

“We talked about this when we moved apartments, Yoonji,” Jimin hooks his fingers in the garter of Yoonji’s pajama bottoms. “You needed more space, so you got it.”

“I don’t like needing more everything.” Yoonji sighs. “Maybe I don’t need more than you two?”

“Oh, you definitely do.” Jimin says, kneeling as he pulls Yoonji’s pajama bottoms down to her ankles.

“Jimin, you have a flight in three hours.” Yoonji says, frowning as she gently tilts Jimin’s face away from her.

“Yeah, and they don’t serve in-flight snacks.” Jimin says, burying his face between her legs.

 

_Present_

Hoseok grins as he listens to the front door lock behind him. _That’ll never get old._ They’ve lived in this apartment for a couple months now, but it’s the things like self-locking front doors that still get him every time.

He lines his shoes up neatly in the rack and picks up the sneakers on the ground to put them in the shelf, too.

Then he pauses and frowns at them. The sneakers are white, shaped like a weird caterpillar, and have something written on the side in English.

“No, that’s not English,” Hoseok says out loud, frowning at the word. “Balen…cago?”

He lowers the sneakers back onto the floor and goes into the apartment. The lights in the living room are on, which puzzles him further. He tiptoes over to the couch and finds someone’s feet dangling off the armrest.

_Yoonji’s not_ that _tall_ , Hoseok thinks as he goes around the couch to find a much taller woman lying on her side, her long dark reddish hair covering her face as she snores softly. _Probably one of Yoonji’s friends?_

Hoseok decides not to bother her and tiptoes over to the bedroom. “Yoonji? Why didn’t you open the sofa bed for your friend?”

Hoseok’s about to poke the lump in the comforter when he realizes it’s just the comforter, and it’s been pulled aside to reveal an empty bed. “Yoonji?”

 

Jisoo yawns, pushing herself up off the strange couch she’s on. She wonders for a second, where the hell she is _now_. Then she sees the man pacing back and forth, holding his phone to his ear with one hand and picking at his lip with the other.

“Hoseok?”

“Oh. Jisoo. That’s you. Hello.” Hoseok says, but he doesn’t look at her as he keeps going around in circles. “Come on, pick up, pick up…”

“Who are you calling?” Jisoo rubs her eyes, then frowns at the eyelash extension that ends up on her finger. _Or maybe that’s my real eyelash._

“Do you know where Yoonji went?”

“What?” Jisoo frowns at him. “She was just… here?”

Hoseok jumps when his call comes through. “Hello! Yoongi-hyung! Is Yoonji there?”

Jisoo gets off the couch and reaches for her bag. She checks her phone. It’s 12:41, and she as a text from her brother telling her to call ahead if she’s coming “home,” so he can open the door for her.

“Jisoo? She’s here, yeah.” Hoseok looks at Jisoo. “Yoongi-hyung’s asking if you’re still coming home tonight?”

_There they go again with the “home” thing…_ Jisoo sighs. “Are they waiting for me?”

“I think so. Yeah. I’ll tell her.” Hoseok’s got beads of sweat on his forehead. “Oh, okay, okay. Bye, Yoongi-hyung. Yeah. Thanks. Good night.”

Jisoo watches him call someone else up, asking anxiously if they’ve seen Yoonji. She wonders, and she knows it’s a very offhanded take on this, but she wonders if Jennie had done that she’d walked out. _Did she even wonder where I’d gone? Did she worry this much?_

“Jisoo.” Hoseok asks, pocketing his phone. He doesn’t raise his voice, but the tone scares Jisoo a little bit.

“Y- Yeah?”

“What did you and Yoonji talk about before you fell asleep?”

Jisoo frowns, trying to rack her brain for something, but all she’s getting is the beginning of a splitting headache. “I- I don’t really remember, but she was acting pretty weird.”

“Weird how?”

Jisoo rubs her temples. “She didn’t want to get a drink. That’s weird, right?”

She looks up and finds that Hoseok’s face has gone pale.

“Oh no.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'll be leaving the fic here for some time (around a month or so) but
> 
> 1\. please don't worry, i'd never abandon a Modern Love fic, I _WILL_ be back  
> 2\. please don't worry about me either, i'm just fine  
> 3\. please worry about ms min yoonji and ms kim jisoo instead  
> 4\. please let me know what you think will happen next 👀  
> 5\. thank you for all the super sweet comments & kudos & everything, i always appreciate them 💕


	6. Jin Brings a Baby to the Fight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “ _Appointment_?” Jin gasps, his voice echoing in the entire floor. “I don’t need an _appointment_ to talk to my own father!”
> 
> “He’s very busy-”
> 
> “So am I!” Jin’s voice cracks as he squawks that out, and the baby hanging from his chest giggles.
> 
> Miss Kwon rolls her eyes. “Seokjin, please don’t make a scene-”
> 
> “He’s an actor!” Jisoo squawks, standing a little way behind Jin. “That’s his _job_!”
> 
> “I don’t- Nobody has time for this, please leave.”

“Soobin, you need to eat vegetables.” Jin says slowly, holding up a small spoon full of carrot bits.

Soobin caws and swats the spoon away with one tiny, but heavy fist.

“Why? Why do we need to eat veggietables?” Sanha asks, looking warily at his own carrots, like he’s afraid they’ll attack him.

“Because… uh…” Jin looks to Yoojung for help, but she only munches away haughtily at her own carrots.

“Because eating carrots makes your eyesight better. You won’t need glasses.”

Jin looks up to find Jisoo and his husband standing in the doorway. Yoongi’s making weird motions with his hands. “ _Come to the laundry room, let’s talk_ ” is what Jin understands from it.

“Yoojung-noona, can you feed Soobin?” Jin asks, trying to hand his daughter the spoon.

“Fine, but I still don’t think he’ll eat it.” Yoojung sighs.

Jin wipes his hands on his pajama pants and jogs out of the kitchen. As soon as he closes the door to the laundry room, he tackles his little sister in a hug.

“I’m an adult,” Jisoo says, trying to squirm out of his bear hug. “You didn’t have to start a manhunt-”

“You’re a post-breakup adult,” Jin pouts. “Those kinds of adults do stupid things.”

Yoongi rolls his eyes. “There’s also something else we need to talk about.” He says pointedly, holding up an envelope.

Jisoo frowns as she opens it, then drops the envelope and screams at it like it’s a cockroach.

Jin puts an arm around her. “The room’s soundproofed but it’s not _that_ soundproofed, Jichu.”

Jisoo seems like she was about to say something, then she shuts her mouth and opens it again and asks, “Why did you soundproof your _laundry room_?”

“Oh, uh,” Jin scratches the back of his head, looking to Yoongi for help.

“The kids don’t like the noise.” Yoongi says with a straight face.

“Anyway!” Jin gives Jisoo a tight side-hug. “What are we going to do about Dad?”

Jin watches his sister’s expression go from terrified, to confused, to angry, to scared again.

“You don’t really have to _do_ anything,” Yoongi says gently, patting one of Jisoo’s hands.

Jisoo nods, but her little mouth is set in a thin line. “I’m going to talk to Dad.”

“I’ll go with you.” Jin says before he even realizes it.

Yoongi grimaces, baring his lower teeth. “I’d go with you, but I’m all out of sick leaves.”

“We’ll be fine.” Jin assures him.

Yoongi doesn’t look convinced. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

Jin looks at Jisoo, who gives him the same look back at him.

“That’s kind of a tall order.”

 

Jisoo drums her hands on the wheel while waiting for the stoplight to turn green. She looks at the backseat through the rearview mirror. “Do you still go to that jazz club on Fridays?”

“No, not since Soobin came around.” Jin says, drumming his fingers on the side of Soobin’s carseat.

“That was your fault, you know.” Jisoo says.

Soobin gurgles.

“No offense, Soobinnie.” Jisoo adds.

“Well,” Jin watches the trees whizz by when the light turns green. “We weren’t planning on adopting a _baby_ baby. But Soobin’s mom insisted.”

Jisoo frowns into the rearview mirror. “You know her?”

“No, not well.” Jin’s face flushes red all the way to his ears. “She said she’s a fan of mine. She just couldn’t have a baby right now, and we could, and she asked us to take Soobin.”

“What if she asks for him when he’s older?”

Jin frowns out the window. “She can _meet_ him. But he’s not hers anymore.”

_Dumb bitch, why would you ask something like that?_ Jisoo drives on in silence until they reach the steel-and-glass part of the city.

She pulls up on one of the streets near their father’s office. “Maybe you and Soobin should stay outside-”

“No way. We’re coming.” Jin says, already strapping a baby carrier across his chest.

 

Ms. Kwon Bo-ah thinks she’s having an okay morning until she looks up from her coffee and finds the guard at the door unable to stop two lanky idiots crashing into the office like lost giraffes. Two lost giraffes and one small hippo.

She ignores the interns scrambling out of the way and stomps over. “Excuse me, do you have an appointment-”

“ _Appointment_?” Jin gasps, his voice echoing in the entire floor. “I don’t need an _appointment_ to talk to my own father!”

“He’s very busy-”

“So am I!” Jin’s voice cracks as he squawks that out, and the baby hanging from his chest giggles.

Miss Kwon rolls her eyes. “Seokjin, please don’t make a scene-”

“He’s an actor!” Jisoo squawks, standing a little way behind Jin. “That’s his _job_!”

“I don’t- Nobody has time for this, please leave,” Miss Kwon heaves a long sigh and reaches out to usher the siblings and whoever’s unfortunate baby this is out of the office.

Jin swats her hands away with a big flourish. “Touch my sister ever again and I will shave you bald!”

Jisoo can’t help but snort at that. “ _Oppa_!”

“Please just get the fuck out of here-” Miss Kwon’s face goes white when the door behind her swings open. “Shit.”

“What’s with all the noise out here?” Jin and Jisoo’s father asks, folder in one hand and phone in the other. He stops when he sees his red-faced children standing in the middle of the office, one of them with a… baby? “What are you two doing here?”

“They said they wanted to speak to you, but I told them you were busy.” Miss Kwon says, her voice taking on this higher, sweeter pitch.

“Dad, can we talk to you? _Alone_?” Jisoo casts a wary look in Miss Kwon’s direction.

 

“You could’ve just called.” Is the first thing their father says when they close the door to his office behind them.

Jin and Jisoo exchange glances.

“I…”

“Yeah, we could’ve…”

Their father sighs and starts arranging the papers on his desk absentmindedly. “So what do you want? Your mother was the one who told me to cut off your extension cards-”

“That was years ago, Dad.” Jisoo blinks at him.

“Huh.” Their father doesn’t look surprised.

“Let’s cut the bullshit,” Jin says. “Why are you marrying that hag?”

“Bo-ah?” Their father shrugs. “It was her idea.”

“And you just went with it?” Jisoo makes a face. “Dad! _Why_!”

“It’s not like that at all,” Their father says with a low chuckle. “I’m getting older, you see. Bo-ah keeps everything in order for me. She takes care of me.”

“Your _kids_ are supposed to take care of you in your old age.” Jin scowls. “Besides, that woman’s just a two-faced gold-digger.”

“And a _criminal_!” Jisoo squeaks. “She kidnapped me three years ago!”

“Yeah, Dad, how can you marry her? She nearly cut Jisoo’s ear off!”

“She had the knife out and everything!”

Their father’s face, again, is a weird kind of unsurprised. “I know.”

“ _What?_ ”

“ _WHAT_?”

“Every relationship has its ups and downs.” Their father says, as if that explains anything.

“ _Ups and downs_? Ups and downs is me getting annoyed at my husband for clogging the toilet!” Jin slams his hands on the hardwood desk. Soobin kicks the pencil holder on the desk over gleefully. “Ups and downs is _not_ kidnapping people’s children for fucking ransom-”

“Language, Seokjin.” Their father chides halfheartedly, pointing at the baby.

“Don’t act like you care about my children.” Jin says, wrapping two protective hands around Soobin’s head.

“Dad, she was going to _cut off my ear_.” Jisoo says, her voice dropping low. “You _cannot_ bring a woman like that into our family.”

“Our family,” Their father scoffs. “What are you talking about? Our family is just me, I’m your father, and you two are my children. That’s all there is to it-”

“Dad, don’t marry her. Please.” Jisoo begs.

“She’s just after your money.” Jin says.

“That may be so, but it’s _my_ money and it’s _my_ choice to marry her or not.” Their father places his hands on the table. “I don’t interfere with _your_ _choices_ ,” He says, taking on a very homophobic tone as he glances at Soobin again. “So don’t interfere with mine.”

Jin stands up suddenly, knocking his chair over. “Don’t compare us, Dad. Jisoo and I chose good people.”

He realizes his mistake and glances at Jisoo, who’s just staring into her lap, blinking very hard. Jin takes one of Jisoo’s hands in his and firmly pulls her to her feet.

“I hope she wastes all of your money.” Jin says, ushering Jisoo to the door. “And you can forget about about us going to your goddamn wedding.”

Their father sighs again. “That was her idea, too, not mine.”

 

Jisoo doesn’t know how she’s feeling right now. Is she angry? Or sad? She feels the tears rolling down her cheeks, and she can hardly see anything – she’s just letting her brother drag her along.

Then he lets go of her, and Jisoo dries her eyes on her sweater sleeves.

“You bitch.” Jisoo hears her brother growl, and then she hears something like a chair falling over.

Jisoo dries her eyes faster and finds Jin holding Miss Kwon by the collar of her pantsuit.

“You wouldn’t really hit a _woman_ in front of your kid, would you, Seokjin?” Miss Kwon asks, narrowing her eyes at the baby giggling at all the noise and violence.

“Soobinnie,” Jin says gently, patting his son on the top of his head (there’s not much hair there). “Gentlemen don’t hit women. Or men. Or any kind of person, for that matter. Unless they kidnap your sister and totally deserve it.”

Jisoo steps back in shock her brother slaps Miss Kwon up the side of her face so hard that it _echoes_.

“SECURITY! CALL SECURITY!” Miss Kwon yells from where she’s fallen in a heap feeling her jaw anxiously like she’s afraid that Jin’s slapped the whole thing clean off.

“We should go.” Jisoo says, grabbing her brother’s arm and dragging him towards the elevator.

The door to their father’s office swings open. “What’s going on?” He bellows.

“Oh crap oh crap oh crap.” Jin says, mashing the elevator button like he’s playing a video game.

The nearest elevator’s fifteen floors away, dinging off somewhere in the distance.

“Stairs!” Jisoo shrieks. “STAIRS!”

They make a mad dash for the stairs, narrowly avoiding a few confused legal aides who still have no idea why the boss’s assistant and fiancée is sitting on the carpet yelling.

 

Jisoo’s driving as fast as she can without attracting any attention from the police, though she’s sure that they’re after them at this point.

“Not so fast, Jisoo!”

“You’re the one who had to go and punch that crazy-”

“I didn’t punch her! I just slapped her! There’s a difference!” Jin chews his bottom lip to a puffy mess while waiting for Yoongi to pick up his end of the phone.

“Hello,” Yoongi’s voice seems calm. _Not for long_.

“H- Hi, love of my life, fire of my loi-”

“What the hell did you do.”

“N- Nothing, Y- Yoongi-yah, love of m- my life,” Jin stammers out. “O- Okay, fine, I did something _really_ stupid-”

He’s interrupted by sirens suddenly blaring behind them.

“Shit!” Jisoo says, gulping as she looks in the rearview mirror.

“Is that the _police_?!” Yoongi asks.

“I told you not to drive so fast!” Jin squawks.

“Should I pull over?” Jisoo squawks back.

“YES!” Yoongi shouts.

“NO!” Jin shouts.

“WHAT?” Jisoo shouts.

“EEEEEEE!” Soobin squeaks gleefully, clapping his hands.

 

“Oh my god.” Jin doesn’t even close the front door behind them. He just lays Soobin’s carrier on the couch then slumps down next to it. “Oh my _god_. I think I just aged like, ten years.”

Jisoo flops onto the couch next to him. “Do you think she’s gonna press charges?”

“She the secretary of a- I mean, she’s the _fiancée_ of a fucking lawyer, Jichu.” Jin groans. “She’s _gonna_ press charges.”

The front door swings open suddenly, and Jisoo and Jin both scream. Soobin shrieks with them, then claps his hands at the noise.

“Holyfuckingshit,” Yoongi says in a soft voice, clutching his heart in the doorway.

“Oh my god, Yoongi-yah, I’m so sorry,” Jin runs over and puts an arm around his husband, helping him into the house so they can shut the door. He lowers Yoongi gently onto the couch next to Soobin’s carrier. “What are you even doing here? Isn’t your boss going to throw a fit-”

“I thought you’d gotten arrested, okay? I went to the precinct and all,” Yoongi takes a deep breath.

“Sorry.” Jin and Jisoo lower their heads, like preschoolers being told off.

The corner of Yoongi’s mouth curls into a grin at them despite himself, and he’s just about to tell them how funny they look when his phone starts buzzing.

Yoongi checks who’s calling. His eyebrows shoot up, but he answers without answering Jin’s curious look. “Hey, what’s up?”

Jin nuzzles into the crook of Yoongi’s neck to listen in. Jisoo can’t do that, so she screws her face up into a frown as she concentrates. Soobin gurgles quizzically, watching his Dad’s expression change every five seconds.

Yoongi’s face settles on a frown. “What do you _mean_ you can’t find her?”

“Find _whom_?” Jin pipes up, unable to restrain himself.

“Yoonji.” Yoongi says quickly, before frowning at something someone on the other end of the line says. “Calm down, Jimin’s not going to kill you- Oh, hello, Jimin, how was your trip? Yes? No, please don’t kill Hoseok. Shit. Guys, please-! Goddamn it.” Yoongi ends up staring at the orange screen of his phone. “They fucking hung up on me.”

“What happened?” Jin’s pretty much invaded Yoongi’s lap in concern at this point.

Yoongi heaves a sigh and wriggles out from under him to stand up. He extends two hands to help Jin and Jisoo to their feet. “Come on, we have to find my sister before her boyfriends go _Lord of the Flies_ or some shit.”

Jin frowns. “Like Frodo?”

“No, dumbass, Frodo’s from _Harry Potter_.” Jisoo flicks her brother on the arm.

Yoongi heaves a sigh. “Let’s go, Soobinnie, you’re my only hope.”

Soobin raises his eyebrows as he sucks on his fist as if to ask, _Who, me?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know i usually post with the frequency of virus-laden popups on a porn site, but my workload's gotten pretty insane (in a good way??) and at the same time I'm trying to sleep earlier. Long story short, I don't have as much time to write, but worry not, I will never let this goddamn fic go. Just expect my posts to become less frequent and more chaotic. 🤪
> 
> I'll still be on twitter [@halp_rice](https://twitter.com/halp_rice) if you wanna scream at me for any reason! 😊


	7. The Gang Go on A Manhunt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “We brought coffee.” Jin says, coaxing the door open a few more inches with his shoulder. “Let’s have coffee while we figure out what to do next.”
> 
> Jimin doesn’t stop Jin from opening the door all the way. “We already called everyone we know, and Jungkook’s even got the police on it even if it hasn’t been 24 hours, I don’t know what else we can do anymore.”
> 
> “We’ll figure it out,” Jin assures him, putting an arm around his shoulders. “We always do, right?”
> 
> “You mean Yoonji does.” Jimin sighs, resting his head against Jin’s shoulder. “Yoonji’s always the one who figures things out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *cue It's Always Sunny in Philadephia theme*
> 
> If you’ve never read [the original Modern Love fic](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12591848/chapters/28680240), this chapter will make little to no sense 
> 
> Brace yourself for the most heterosexual cameos since Avengers Endgame
> 
> EDIT 080219: My math skills are crusty af, little Yoonji is actually six years old, not three

Jimin doesn’t understand how he could possibly be feeling jetlag after coming home from a country with just an hour’s time difference, but _god_ does he feel tired.

The sun’s set behind the skyline, as if mocking Jimin, like, _You’ve been driving around for_ hours _._

“Jimin, keep your eyes open.” Hoseok says, turning the car with one hand and tapping Jimin on the shoulder with the other.

“I’m awake.” Jimin growls, rubbing his eyes as he sits up. He’s trying, in this tired-as-fuck state, to be patient with Hoseok, but he can’t fucking _believe_ that Jung _fucking_ Hoseok managed to fucking _LOSE_ their girlfriend in the _one fucking month_ that he was away.

Hoseok’s phone starts chiming in the cupholder, and Hoseok’s fingers tangle like a drunk spider as he tries to reach for it without looking. Jimin rolls his eyes and grabs the phone.

“Hello?” Jimin answers irritably.

“J- Jimin?” Yoongi’s voice on the other end is hoarse. “Have you…?”

“Found her? No.” Jimin says, and when he hears the heavy breathing from Yoongi’s end, he sighs. “Not yet. We’ll let you know when we do.”

“Okay. Bye.”

“Bye.” Jimin slides Hoseok’s phone back into the cupholder. He slides down in his seat, facing the window, but he’s really looking at Hoseok’s reflection in the glass. Hoseok’s fingers are starting to shake on the wheel. “We’re running low on gas.”

“Oh.” Is all Hoseok says.

“Let’s go home first,” Jimin says. “Make a few calls. She’s probably just with one of her friends.”

Hoseok’s fingers twitch as he turns the corner towards their street. “Yeah.”

Jimin reaches across the console to pat Hoseok on the thigh. He’s seen Hoseok in every shade of worried, but this time it’s different. He’s been keeping his thoughts to himself for the past few hours, but he can’t keep it in anymore. “What happened when I was gone?”

Hoseok swallows.

 

Nara’s scrolling down some old photos that facebook had dug up for her from three years before. She stops at one that’s clearly from her wedding reception, and in it Yoonji’s giving her a piggyback ride for reasons Nara can no longer remember. She smiles as she finds her husband standing in the corner of the airport lounge. “Hey, Joonie, do you remember what was happening-”

Namjoon’s on his phone, and he doesn’t even hold up a hand to ask her to be quiet. “No, I’m sorry, Yoongi, I haven’t.”

Nara stops in midstep, frowning because her husband’s frowning. ‘Joonie?’ She mouths in concern.

“Oh, wait, hold on, she’s here.” Namjoon lifts his eyebrows when he notices her. “Have you heard from Yoonji lately?”

Nara glances down at the photo on her phone. Yoonji’s face is red from carrying Nara, who’s laughing so hard that she’s got a triple chin and no eyes. “No.”

“She said she hasn’t,” Namjoon leans against a column, still holding his phone to his ear. “Where did you last see her?”

Nara rests her chin on Namjoon’s free shoulder, trying to listen in. She hears a voice that’s definitely Yoongi’s on the other side, but she can’t make out what he’s saying.

“Is there anything else we can do to help?” Namjoons takes one of Nara’s hands in his and give it a light, reassuring squeeze. “Yes, of course. I’ll call if we hear from her. Call us if you need anything else. I hope you find her soon. Bye, Yoongi. Take care.”

Nara gives Namjoon’s hand a strong squeeze when he pockets his phone again. “What was that? Where’s Yoonji?”

“They don’t know.”

“Hoseok and Jimin don’t know?”

“They’re looking for her, too.”

Nara lets go of Namjoon’s hand and starts pacing around the corner of the lounge. “Where could she have gone where they can’t find her? Why would she leave? Maybe someone took her-”

“Nara, please.” Namjoon says, catching his wife by the waist before she plows crop circles into the carpet. “Let’s hope for the best.”

“But Yoonji-” Nara sighs and starts tugging on Namjoon’s collar. “Joonie?”

“Yes?” Namjoon looks up at her, knowing perfectly well that she only does that when she’s about to ask him for something, and that he just won’t have the willpower to refuse.

“Can we move our trip?”

Namjoon’s already pulling his phone out of his pocket again. “Okay. You want to look for Yoonji?”

“Yes.” Nara tiptoes to kiss Namjoon on the cheek. “Thank you.”

“You know I’ll do anything for Yoonji,” Namjoon says as he rebooks all their reservations. “I don’t think we’d be even having an anniversary without her.”

 

Jiwoo’s got her feet up on an ottoman, wiggling her toes while Minho massages them. It had been a laundry day, and she’s trying to relax, even if she can’t really hear herself think. One of her sons is pounding away at his electric guitar – curse Auntie Yoonji for buying him that abomination – in the next room, while the others are arguing who gets to use it next.

She vaguely hears a faint plinking noise. “What’s that?”

“It’s your phone, Mommy.” Yoonji says from beside her on the couch, as she calmly scribbles in crayon over one of her father’s monthly reports.

“So it is.” Jiwoo looks down at her husband, who looks at her desperately, like, _please don’t make me stand up, I think my knees have locked._ Jiwoo sighs and bangs her fist into the wall separating them from the kids’ room. “Hey! ONE OF YOU GET ME MY PHONE!”

“You heard her!”

“ _You_ do it!”

“She was talking to you!”

“GET MY PHONE, YOU USELESS SLUGS!” Jiwoo screams, banging her fist into the wall. “OR I’M GIVING THE GODDAMN INSTRUMENT TO THE HWANGS!”

“ _Honey_ ,” Minho says, but before he can say anything else, their sons start skittering into the room like puppies on tiles, each with one or two fingers holding Jiwoo’s phone.

“Thank you, boys,” Jiwoo says, managing to give her eldest son a peck on the cheek before he squirms away in teenage disgust. She frowns at the caller id, but picks up anyway. “Hey, Hoseok, long time no… anything.”

Her husband frowns. “Who’s Hoseok?” He whispers loudly.

Jiwoo rolls her eyes. They’ve been over this so many times. “My lover.” She hisses back, one hand over the microphone. She uncovers it again and says, “What’s up, Hoseok?”

Minho and Yoonji scramble out of the way when Jiwoo sits up with a shriek. “What do you _mean_ she’s missing?”

“Who’s missing?” Yoonji asks.

“Yoonji.”

Yoonji points at herself. “But I’m right here.”

“I think she’s talking about Auntie Yoonji,” Minho says gently, patting Yoonji on the knee. Then he frowns. “Hang on, what happened to Yoonji?”

“Nothing happened to me.” Yoonji replies.

“I don’t know, wait,” Jiwoo says, dashing into the kitchen, cupping a hand around her mouth and the receiver. “Hoseok, slow down, please- No, she’s not here. _No_ , I am _not_ hiding her from you guys, why would I? Okay, fair enough, but that’s not what’s happening here- What _is_ happening?”

“Mommy?” The six-year-old, accounted-for Yoonji tugs on the edge of Jiwoo’s nightgown.

“Hold on, sweetie, Mommy’s still talking to her friend,” Jiwoo says, patting her daughter on the head as she holds the phone up to her ear again. “No, it was just Yoonji- No, my daughter Yoonji, I swear she’s not here or I’d tell you- Park fucking Jimin don’t you fucking threaten me, don’t think that just because I’m three months pregnant I won’t beat your ass- Aw, thank you, Hoseok, I’m doing fine, thanks. The baby’s doing well- Have you tried calling Kwon Nara? Oh, okay. I’ll let you know if she shows up around here. Yeah. I hope you find her soon. Bye, you two. Take care of your dumb asses.”

Jiwoo puts her phone down on the counter and collapses into the nearest chair, sighing. “God fucking damn that crazy bitch. She’d better be okay.”

“Crazy bitch?” Yoonji echoes, looking up curiously at her mom.

 

Jungkook listens to the thirteen locks on the apartment door lock behind him. He nods when the security system gives out a low electronic chime.

“That thing is so extra.” Taehyung’s leaning on the wall, pointing at the door with an eyebrow. “You’d think we were keeping diamonds in here or something.”

“You’re more important than diamonds.” Jungkook says, frowning at Taehyung.

“I love you too.” Taehyung chuckles, grabbing Jungkook by the waist of his pants.

Jungkook flushes bright pink. “Wait, we’re-”

“We’re alone.” Taehyung says, planting a kiss on Jungkook’s nose. “Your stupid vault door made sure of that.”

“You don’t like the new security system?” Jungkook makes a face.

“I just don’t like the idea of living in a bank,” Taehyung says, and he breaks into a smirk like he’s about to say something dirty, but then he and Jungkook feel his phone vibrate in his pocket. Taehyung groans. “Please don’t answer it.”

“It might be an emergency,” Jungkook says, already fishing his phone out of his pocket.

“It’s been so long since we’ve had time alone like this,” Taehyung says quietly.

“I know it’s tough, I’m sorry.” Jungkook glances sadly into Taehyung’s eyes before answering whoever’s calling him. “Hello?”

“Hey, Jungkook?”

Jungkook frowns. “Jimin? What’s up?”

“Sorry this is really fucking random but have you seen Yoonji lately? Like, _today_?”

“Yoonji?” Jungkook finds himself staring off into space with his mouth slightly agape. “As in _your_ girlfriend?”

“God fucking dammit, Jungkook, just answer me-”

“Chill, dude, I haven’t seen her since we had dinner on my birthday, so that’s like… Two months ago?”

“Shit.”

“Jimin?” Jungkook can hear frantic whispers on Jimin’s end. “What’s up? Where’s Yoonji?”

“We don’t know, I don’t know who to call anymore or where to go-” Jimin’s voice cracks, like he’s crying. “We’ve been looking for her all day.”

“Oh god, I’m sorry, dude.” Jungkook squeezes his phone nervously. “Do you want me to call my friend in the police? We could check CCTVs-”

“No, I-” Jimin sighs. “Actually, that would be great.”

“Yeah, I’ll call them.” Jungkook says. “I’m on my way there now.”

“What? Where?”

“To your place.” Jungkook says.

“Jungkook, you don’t have to-”

“You’d do the same for me if anything happened to Taehyung.”

“The nation would launch a massive manhunt if _Taehyung_ went missing.” Jimin chuckles drily.

“Tell him we’ll do the same for Yoonji-noona.” Taehyung whispers to Jungkook.

“You heard that?” Jungkook asks.

Jimin sniffles. “Yeah.”

“We’re on our way. See you in a bit.”

“Thanks, Jungkook. See you.”

Jungkook starts dialing his friend in the local police station, but he can feel Taehyung staring at him intently. “I’m sorry for cutting into our time-”

“Fuck that,” Taehyung says, already picking their jackets back up. “Go unlock the fucking vault, let’s go.”

Jungkook smiles at Taehyung. He hasn’t seen this Taehyung – the normal, unguarded Taehyung – in a while, and part of him secretly wishes the nation would get even a little tired of Taehyung so Jungkook could have more of him to himself. The other part of him doesn’t want to be unemployed, so he just gives Taehyung a quick kiss before unlocking the door.

 

Hoseok opens the door, rubbing his nose on his sleeve. “Hi.”

Yoongi practically jumps through the doorway to hug Hoseok. “Hi.” He says gruffly, but he buries his face into Hoseok’s shoulder.

Jin closes the door to the apartment behind them. “Where’s Jimin?”

“Room.” Hoseok points with one sweater paw, still hugging Yoongi tightly with his other arm.

Jin tiptoes down the hallway – he’s not entirely sure why he’s doing it – and knocks on the door to the bedroom. “Jimin? Yoongi and I are here.”

The door swings open a crack, but it’s dark inside. “Who’d you leave the kids with?”

“Jisoo.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“We brought coffee.” Jin says, coaxing the door open a few more inches with his shoulder. “Let’s have coffee while we figure out what to do next.”

Jimin doesn’t stop Jin from opening the door all the way. “We already called everyone we know, and Jungkook’s even got the police on it even if it hasn’t been 24 hours, I don’t know what else we can do anymore.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Jin assures him, putting an arm around his shoulders. “We always do, right?”

“You mean Yoonji does.” Jimin sighs, resting his head against Jin’s shoulder. “Yoonji’s always the one who figures things out.”

 

_Earlier that morning_

Yoonji’s standing in front of the apartment building, one finger hovering over the buzzer. She knows she should just go home, that Hoseok’s going to be worried out of his mind when he gets home, and that the buzzing of her phone in her pocket is probably him looking for her.

Yoonji holds on the power button of her phone until the buzzing stops, feeling as guilty as if she’d smothered it to death.

She takes a deep breath and rings the doorbell.

“Hi…?” The groggy voice over the intercom croaks.

“It’s me, Yoonji.”

“Yoonji? Wha-”

“I know this is really fucking random and awkward as hell but I didn’t know who else to ask for help,” Yoonji spits out in one breath. “Sorry. It’s okay if you say no, I’d get it.”

The other line is silent for some time, and Yoonji’s afraid it’s going to be like that forever, when the front door of the building swings open.

“Come on up.”

Yoonji presses the intercom again. “Thanks, Jennie.”

“No problem.”


	8. Girl Problems

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Breathe, Yoonji, breathe,” Jennie says, rubbing Yoonji’s back as she leads the worryingly pale – well, more than usual – woman down the street, ignoring all the people frowning their way. “Isn’t the fresh air nice? Nice, fresh-”
> 
> “ _THIS IS DANK CITY AIR!_ ” Yoonji screeches, wriggling out of Jennie’s grasp.
> 
> Jennie has to jog to keep up with her. She manages to catch Yoonji by the jacket. “Here! Yoonji! Here’s a tree! Breathe the fresh tree air!”
> 
> “ _IT’S A DANK CITY TREE!_ ” Yoonji says, slipping out of her jacket and running freely down the sidewalk. 
> 
> Jennie has to stop and catch her breath. _Why is she so fast? What the fuck?_
> 
> _It’s the fries, isn’t it?_

Jennie wakes up facing the empty side of the bed. The mattress still has a slight dip to it, like an echo of Jisoo still enforcing her own space, and Jennie, despite her best efforts, hasn’t been able to invade it. Jennie walks to the bathroom to wash her face, but the basket by sink is full of bottles that smell like Jisoo. _Of course they do. They’re hers._

Everything in this goddamn apartment, down to instant coffee Jennie’s mixing in her tumbler, has her thinking about Jisoo. She wishes she could just skip ahead to the part where she’s fine, but a strange, not-so-small part of her likes the fact that she’s hurt. It’s the strongest thing she’s felt in months, aside from exhaustion.

Jennie’s just put the lid on her tumbler when the doorbell buzzes.

She allows herself to hope, of course, as she walks over to press the intercom. Their apartment – no, _the_ apartment isn’t sophisticated enough to have a video on the intercom, so Jennie has no idea who’s on the other side when she answers.

“Hi…?”

The person on the other end doesn’t let Jennie hope for too long.

“It’s me, Yoonji.”

Jennie frowns. “Yoonji? Wha-”

“I know this is really fucking random and awkward as hell but I didn’t know who else to ask for help,” Yoonji spits out in one breath that crackles against the speaker. “Sorry. It’s okay if you say no, I’d get it.”

Jennie’s first thought, which she feels guilty about later, is that it doesn’t seem healthy for her to hang around trying to help her ex-girlfriend’s sister-in-law, that she should probably stay away from her ex-girlfriend’s family altogether, for her own good.

But Yoonji sounds more desperate than Jennie’s ever heard her, and Jennie’s not a monster.

Jennie punches the button to open the door. “Come on up.”

“Thanks, Jennie.”

“No problem.”

 

“I need to see a doctor.”

Jennie frowns, looking Yoonji over. She’s just a med student, and not even an intern, but Yoonji doesn’t look unwell. Distressed, maybe, but not _sick_. “Why?”

“I need…” Yoonji chews on her lip. “I don’t like going to hospitals and I don’t have a _lady_ doctor, okay? I need to see one.”

“A… what?”

“A lady doctor. For women. For uterus-owning people.” Yoonji looks ready to tear either her own hair or Jennie’s out in frustration. She groans. “I’m pregnant, okay? I fucked up, _literally_.”

“Oh crap.” Jennie gasps. “I mean, congratula-”

“Don’t fucking congratulate me I’m so fucking stressed I don’t know what to do!” Yoonji wails, throwing the nearest thing within her reach at Jennie. It’d been a hairbrush.

“Sorry.” Jennie rubs the place on her shoulder that the brush had hit. “But, uh, I have a professor who’s an OB-Gyn, I guess I could ask him if he’s not busy-”

“A _dude_?” Yoonji makes a face. “Not to sound all het and stuff, but I don’t like the idea of a non-cooch owner being forced to look up my cooch.”

“Uh,” Jennie grimaces. “The only other one I know is um, Jisoo’s mom.”

Yoonji’s face pales more than usual, which Jennie hadn’t even thought possible. “Oh hell no. Not her.”

“So, uh, I’ll call the dude, then?”

“Yes. Thanks.”

 

Jennie had planned to drop Yoonji off at the hospital then head straight to the class she was already late for, but the minute they’d stepped into the hospital lobby, Yoonji had turned around and given Jennie this _look._ It was the sort of look that rooted you to the spot, like when you knock your funnybone on something and can’t move for a good few minutes.

Jennie knows for a fact that Yoonji and Jisoo aren’t actually related, and they’re almost nothing like each other, but Yoonji had given her the _look_ Jisoo had given Jennie when Jisoo had realized that she didn’t know how to cook rice, or how to haggle prices, or how to segregate laundry. Put simply, it’s a look that Jennie just can’t ignore.

“Need me to stay with you?” Jennie asks.

“No, what the hell, just go to class.” Yoonji mutters, but her face is tilted down to her feet and she’s hardly opening her mouth. “Aren’t you late already?”

“The prof’s crappy. It won’t matter if I miss a class.”

“Aren’t you bringing me to your professor?” Yoonji frowns up at Jennie with just a little of her usual shade of irritation.

“That’s not Dr. Kwak. Dr. Kwak’s different. And he’s, uh, this way,” Jennie says, taking Yoonji by the sleeve to lead her in the right direction.

“I knew that.” Yoonji says defensively, but she loops her arm around Jennie’s as they start towards the elevators.

“Anyway,” Jennie says, giving Yoonji’s arm a gentle pat. “Dr. Kwak’s one of the best doctors I’ve met, probably. He’s just boring as hell.”

“Boring is good.” Yoonji takes a deep breath as they step into the elevator. “I need some boring right now.”

 

“I have good news and,” Dr. Kwak takes that moment to clear his throat loudly, and Yoonji and Jennie both lean forward, frowning. “Good news.”

Dr. Kwak starts wheezing at his own joke, if you can call it that.

Yoonji shoots Jennie a sidelong frown.

Jennie waves her hand as if to say, _let him be._

“What’s the good news, Professor?” Jennie asks in her most polite voice.

“The baby’s fine, which is a miracle in itself considering you’ve never been to see a doctor.” Dr. Kwak says with a warm smile.

The sigh of relief Yoonji heaves is so deep she slides down in her seat. Jennie reaches across the space between their chairs and pats Yoonji on the forearm.

Yoonji sits up, alert like a meerkat as she frowns at the doctor. “What’s the other news, then?”

Dr. Kwak’s mouth curves into a languid smile. “It’s a girl.”

 

“For a second there I thought he was gonna say I was gonna have motherfucking _twins_ ,” Yoonji says, reaching into her container of fries just to find her hand hit the bottom of the greasy carton. Her eyes dart towards Jennie’s fries.

Jennie pushes the carton over. She’s not about to risk her life for soggy fries.

She knows that she, being a future health professional, probably should’ve stopped Yoonji from feeding her growing daughter absolute garbage, but Yoonji had insisted on treating Jennie to lunch, and Jennie knew that Yoonji needed to save all the money she could.

“What’re you laughing about?” Yoonji asks, narrowing her eyes at Jennie while she digs into Jennie’s fries.

“I’m not laughing.” Jennie says.

“You were smiling.”

“Oh, it’s- It’s nothing. I’m just happy for you.” Jennie admits. She never wants kids of her own, but she’s ridiculously happy that someone she knows is gonna have one. _Which makes no sense._

“How can you be happy for me?” Yoonji groans, tipping over the container of fries, but nothing falls out except for a few grains of salt. “I don’t even know what I’m gonna tell _them_.”

Jennie stops herself from offering to order more fries. _Think about the baby._

“Won’t they be, uh, really happy? They love kids.”

“I know they will, but that’s not even… It’s not gonna be like this forever. I’m gonna get all fat and stuff and then I’m going to have to give _birth_ ,” Yoonji makes a gagging noise. “And then we’re going be responsible for a whole entire fucking _human_.”

Sweat is starting to collect on Jennie’s forehead just thinking about it. _It’s not even gonna be your kid, Jennie, it’s not your problem._

Meanwhile, Yoonji looks like she’s about to have a full-blown breakdown in the second floor of a McDonald’s at two in the afternoon.

“…and I’m going to have to tell her not to do dumb shit but not be a bitch about it, but then I probably did all the dumb shit in the world, so I’m not anywhere _near_ qualified to tell anyone what to fucking _do_ – Oh my god I can’t breathe.” Yoonji says, gripping the sides of the greasy table. The other people in the restaurant are starting to give them very concerned, _I’m-about-to-call-911_ looks.

Jennie gives them the strained, square-ish smile you give strangers when you want to reassure them that you don’t want their help. She reaches for Yoonji’s cold, oil-slicked hand, which is absolutely disgusting. “Yoonji, it’s going to be okay.”

“No-! it’s-! not!” Yoonji gasps out between sharp breaths.

“You have Hoseok and Jimin to help you and they’re like, the best guys ever.” Jennie pats Yoonji’s greasy hand even though it’s making her guts start to roll around in agony. “You guys are going to be great parents.”

“I don’t know shit about babies. Or children. Or _teenagers_. God, why the fuck did this happen to me?” Yoonji slumps forward to smack her forehead on the edge of her tray. “Serves me right for being such a fucking _cumslut_!”

Jennie doesn’t even want to see how the other people are looking at them right now. She pats Yoonji’s hand again, reluctantly. “Come on, don’t say that about yourself. You’re a great-”

“I _am_ a cumslut and I should’ve fucking stopped them from c-”

“Yoonji!” Jennie squawks out followed by a loud, forced laugh. She gets up and slings both their purses over her shoulders. “Let’s get some fresh air, huh? Fresh air sounds good? Yeah?”

“I-” Yoonji says, but Jennie’s already pulled her to her feet and started leading her towards the stairs.

 

“Breathe, Yoonji, breathe,” Jennie says, rubbing Yoonji’s back as she leads the worryingly pale – well, more than usual – woman down the street, ignoring all the people frowning their way. “Isn’t the fresh air nice? Nice, fresh-”

“ _THIS IS DANK CITY AIR!_ ” Yoonji screeches, wriggling out of Jennie’s grasp.

Jennie has to jog to keep up with her. She manages to catch Yoonji by the jacket. “Here! Yoonji! Here’s a tree! Breathe the fresh _tree_ air!”

“ _IT’S A DANK CITY TREE!_ ” Yoonji says, slipping out of her jacket and running freely down the sidewalk.

Jennie has to stop and catch her breath. _Why is she so fast? What the fuck?_

_It’s the fries, isn’t it?_

“Yoonji! Wait!” Jennie finds herself leaping across a crosswalk just as the time ticks down to 0. A couple cars honk at her, but she’s got a panicked pregnant woman to catch, and she doesn’t care. “MIN YOONJI!”

Yoonji seems to have gotten tired, too – _finally_ – leaning against a streetlamp, panting. “I shouldn’t have done that. Do I ever make good decisions? _Ever_?”

“I’m sure you do.” Jennie tries to assure her. She rubs Yoonji’s back. “That’s good, just breathe in the dank city air-”

“I need _fresh_ fresh air.” Yoonji looks up, her eyes bright.

Jennie doesn’t follow. “Uh, what?”

“I’m going home.”

“Good,” Jennie nods slowly. “Jimin and Hoseok are probably looking for-”

“No, no, I can’t see them right now.” Yoonji says, swiveling on her heel. “I’m going _home_ home.”

Jennie has another class in thirty minutes, and they’re going to be covering some stuff that’ll be in the exam in two days, but what can she do?

“Wait, Yoonji, I’ll come with!”

 

“No, someone’s got to stay with the kids.” Yoongi says, and Yoojung huffs loudly.

“If Auntie Yoonji’s missing, I want to look for her, too.” Yoojung crosses her arms.

“Who said anything about Auntie Yoonji being missing?” Yoongi asks, narrowing his eyes at his husband. Jin’s just bouncing Soobin around in his arms, his eyebrows lifted innocently, but he never opens his mouth to defend himself.

“Where’s Auntie Yoonji?” Sanha asks, looking up from his coloring book a beat too late.

“Nobody knows, Sanha, that’s kind of the _point_.” Yoojung says.

“But _why_?” Sanha pouts.

“Auntie Yoonji’s fine, I just need to go pick her up.” Yoongi says tensely, crouching to comb Sanha’s hair reassuringly with his fingers. He stops by Jin and gives him a pointed look above all their kids’ heads. “I might be back late, don’t wait up for me.”

Jin’s mouth pulls into a line. “I’ll come with you.”

“Jin, we can’t-”

“I’ll watch the kids.” Jisoo says. She’d been standing off to one side, scrolling absentmindedly on her phone while listening in the entire time.

“Oh!” Jin had almost forgotten she’d been there. “Jisoo can watch the kids.”

Yoongi looks up at Jin, turned partway so Jisoo can’t see the lines of worry on his face. ‘No,’ He mouths.

“Why not?” Jin asks. “She’s twenty-four years old. Besides, we let her babysit Yoojung a couple times-”

“That was just Yoojung back then.” Yoongi says, throwing all subtlety out the window. “We can’t just leave _Soobin_ -”

“Why not?” Jisoo asks, straightening up defensively.

“Yeah, why not?” Jin asks, quite literally leaning in Jisoo’s direction.

Yoongi glances at Jisoo for a second, like he’s about to change his mind, then he turns back to Jin with a stern look. “I’m sorry, Jin, but I think all three of them is too much for Jisoo.”

Jisoo opens her mouth to protest, but Jin cuts in before she can say anything.

“Why don’t you want me to come with you?” Jin asks.

Yoongi looks down at Yoojung and Sanha, who are looking from their Dad to Daddy and back with their eyes wide. He takes Jin a little roughly by the elbow, but not too roughly, of course, because Jin’s carrying Soobin. “Let’s talk outside.”

“Jisoo, take the baby.” Jin hands the baby to Jisoo, who’s not entirely sure how to hold him, and follows Yoongi outside.

Jisoo shifts Soobin around gingerly in her arms. Soobin’s grimacing up at her, and she’s grimacing right back at him.

“You have to hold him under his butt so he doesn’t slip.” Yoojung says, reaching over to adjust Jisoo’s arms.

“But don’t squeeze him too tight or he’ll _poot_.” Sanha snickers.

Jisoo holds Soobin at an arm’s length and stares him down. “You better not _poot_ , young man.”

Soobin giggles, gnawing innocently on his knuckles as a funny, bubbly little noise echoes in the quiet house.

“Oh come on.” Jisoo groans at Soobin, whose mouth curls into a guilty little _w_ shape.

The front door opens, and Jisoo looks away from her current problem to find her brother and his husband holding hands again.

“Soobin made _poo-poo_.” Sanha snickers behind one hand.

“Oh.” Jin looks down at Yoongi.

“I’ll just change him then we can go.” Yoongi says.

Jisoo looks curiously at Yoongi as the latter takes Soobin from her. “What? You’re _both_ going?”

“Yeah.” Jin says, watching Yoongi’s back disappear up the stairs. “Soobin’s eaten already-”

“Obviously.”

Jin blushes. “Anyway, there’s dinner in the refrigerator for you and the bigger kids, then make sure they brush their teeth and take baths and go to bed by eight.”

“Okay, oppa.” Jisoo nods aggressively.

Jin crouches to tilt Yoojung’s and Sanha’s chins up to him. “You two are going to listen to Auntie Jisoo and behave yourselves, okay?”

“Okay, Daddy.” Sanha says.

“Why? How far away is Auntie Yoonji?” Yoojung frowns. “How long will it take for you to pick her up? Do you even _know_ where she-”

“Kim Yoojung.”

Yoojung closes her mouth so quickly her teeth knock into each other.

“Be good, okay?” Jin says.

“Fine.” Yoojung mutters, hands behind her back as she scuffs a foot against the floor.

“I guess that’s good enough.” Jin sighs, kissing her on the forehead. He pecks Sanha on the top of his head just as Yoongi comes back down the stairs with Soobin, wriggling in his pajamas and (presumably) fresh diaper.

“Let’s go.” Yoongi says curtly, laying Soobin gently on his blanket on the couch.

Jin scrambles to grab both their jackets and the keys. He kisses Soobin quickly on the cheek, and Soobin gurgles, then he kisses Jisoo on the cheek, and Jisoo squirms much more.

“Uh, oppa?” Jisoo calls out when they’re at the door.

“Yeah?” Jin asks, already one leg out the door.

“Please call me when you fi- When Yoonji’s with you guys.” Jisoo says, quickly catching herself.

Jin smiles weakly. “I will. Love you all.”

“Bye Daddy!”

“Good night, Daddy!”

“Gurgkgk!”

“Bye.” Jisoo says nervously.

 

Jennie shifts in her seat. Her shoulder is starting to get numb, because Yoonji’s head is heavier than she’d expected it would be.

Jennie’s not complaining, though. It’d been a relief Yoonji had fallen asleep when she did, because the train ride would’ve felt even longer than it was if Yoonji had been panicking all the way.

A muffled voice comes over the train’s speakers as it slows to a stop, sending the fast-asleep Yoonji pitching forward in her seat.

Yoonji wakes up with a jolt, frowning down at the seatbelt around her hips. “The fuck is this?”

“A seatbelt.”

“When did this train get _that_?” Yoonji makes a face.

Jennie has the feeling these trains had had them for quite a while now, but she doesn’t say anything.

Yoonji squints out the window. There’s not much to see, since the sun has set and there don’t seem to be any electric lights for miles around. “This is our stop. Come on.”

Jennie unclips her seatbelt, grabs their purses, and follows Yoonji off the train and onto a tiny platform. The bluish lights above are dimmed by small clouds of bugs buzzing around them, and once the train leaves them, there’s no sound but what Jennie assumes to be crickets chirping. Jennie doesn’t know, because she’s lived in the city all her life, and nature’s always been something on the other side of the TV screen.

Jennie finds Yoonji patting herself down like an overly friendly security guard. “Yoonji?”

“Have you got any change?”

“ _Change_?”

“Yes. As in, coins.” Yoonji grimaces. “I forgot how primitive this place is.”

“What?”

“I need to use the payphone.” Yoonji points at a dust-covered, boxy payphone that Jennie feels belongs in a museum or a hipster’s house. “To call my parents?”

“There’s no… taxi around here?”

“Jennie-” Yoonji shuts her eyes and takes a deep breath, like she’s meditating. “Do you have coins or not?”

“I think I’ve got some,” Jennie says, digging around her purse. She pulls a handful of coins out of one of the pockets. “Here.”

“Thanks.” Yoonji salutes her before trotting over to the payphone.

Jennie’s left to amuse herself watching the bugs fly around the lights overhead. _The bugs here are big. Bugs back home aren’t as_ wild. _The rats, on the other hand…_

Jennie’s head is starting to ache, maybe from the impromptu six-hour trip to some province she couldn’t even find on a map, or maybe from baby-sitting Yoonji in a rabid panic, or maybe from staring at this naked light bulb for too long. She looks down at the tiled floor, which must not have been crooked once, but probably long before she was born.

Jennie walks along the grouting of the tiles, placing one foot in front of the other to stay along the narrow line.

_Seventeen years ago, Jennie had done the same thing, watching the way her sneakers line up against each other on the floor of the platform. It’d been a different platform, probably, but she can hardly remember._

_“Jendeuk, come along,” Her father had said, extending a hand. “Your grandpa’s here to pick us up.”_

_Her mother had already gone ahead, fanning herself furiously while she complained about the dust and the heat._

_Jennie had taken her father’s hand, which had felt like four times her own, and covered in tree bark. She only remembers how rough his hands were at that time, more than his actual face._

Jennie no longer remembers what her grandfather looked like, or what kind of car he picked them up in. She doesn’t remember the drive to her father’s parents’ house, or what the house even looked like.

All she remembers is that her grandparents were kinder to her than even her father ever was.

_Was he really kind to me?_ Jennie thinks, turning as she nears the end of the platform. She starts following another line of grout. _Or was he just kinder than my mom?_

_What a low bar._

Jennie stuffs her hands in her pockets. It’s not that late in the evening or the year, but the breeze is chilly. _Dad left, though, and he never came back. Why didn’t he come back for me?_

“My dad’s on the way.” Yoonji says, walking over with her hands tucked away inside her jacket. “I think.”

“You’re not sure?”

“I think Mom was sleeping, so she wasn’t making much sense.”

“Oh. Okay.” Jennie shifts on her aching feet.

Yoonji frowns. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” Jennie nods over to a bench at the side of the platform. “Do you want to sit?”

“Why, are you tired? Go sit if you want.”

Jennie doesn’t want to admit that she’s tired as hell, but if the pregnant lady can still stand, then _she_ ’ll stay standing, too. “No, you should probably sit-”

“We’ve been sitting for hours. I need to stretch my legs.” Yoonji says, kicking both her legs in succession. Jennie just stumbles out of the way before she loses a shin to Yoonji.

 

“Stop! Stop! Just _stop_!” Jisoo screams, trying (and failing) to catch Sanha as he darts down the hallway covered in nothing but water and soap suds. Soobin’s wailing in the room, and Yoojung’s yelling at Jisoo from said room, but Jisoo has no idea what she’s saying. “SANHA! GET BACK HERE! SON OF A-!”

Jisoo slips on Sanha’s soapy trail and hits her head on the wall. A couple framed photos come tumbling down onto the floor next to her. “God fucking _damn_ it!”

The door to the kids’ room swings open. “AUNTIE JISOO!” Yoojung screams, leaning out.

“ _What_!” Jisoo screams back.

“SOOBIN THREW UP!”

“He did _WHAT_?” Jisoo slowly clambers up on all fours, still rubbing her head.

“HE VOMITED! WHAT DO I DO?”

“I DON’T KNOW!”

“YOU’RE THE ADULT! YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO KNOW!”

“WELL I DON’T!”

Yoojung just lets out an exasperated, wordless scream and slams the door in Jisoo’s face.

“HEY!” Jisoo uses the doorknob to help herself up. “DON’T YOU SLAM DOORS ON ME, YOU LITTLE- HEY! STOP RUNNING!”

Sanha comes running up the hallway again, still somehow trailing soap and water, but Jisoo manages to grab him by the arm, pulling him towards her until she can clamp her arm around his belly.

“Owwwieee!” Sanha whines, rubbing his arm where Jisoo had grabbed it.

“Oh come on, I didn’t even-”

Sanha starts wailing out loud, flopping butt naked onto the floor. The door to the bedroom opens again, and Soobin’s wails come flooding in like an ambulance siren.

“AUNTIE JISOO! DO SOMETHING!” Yoojung screams, covering both her ears.

“WAIT!” Jisoo says, looking from Sanha to Yoojung to the darkened room where Soobin’s still crying his lungs out. She finds herself leaning against the wall, shutting her eyes, and – she wishes – her ears, too.

She wishes there were someone she could call. Her brother’s busy, and besides, he’d be a thousand times more worried if he knew that everything was a mess at home, too.

_If Jennie were-_

Jisoo takes a very long breath. _No. This is my own problem. I got myself into this._

Jisoo crumples into a heap, drawing her face into her knees.

“Auntie Jisoo?” Yoojung’s hand rests on top of her aunt’s head. “Auntie Jisoo, don’t cry.”

“I- I’m sorry,” Jisoo rubs her nose roughly on her sleeve, sniffling loudly. She’s about to look up when she feels two small, clammy arms wrap around her. When she lifts her head, she finds Sanha’s giving her a slightly sudsy hug. “Thanks.”

Yoojung disappears back into the room and comes out carrying Soobin, who’s calmed down a little bit – mostly from confusion – though he’s still got a whitish stain down the front of his onesie.

“I’ll take care of them, Auntie Jisoo.” Yoojung announces, starting down the hallway. “Come on, Sanha!”

Sanha gives Jisoo one last bubbly hug before padding down the hallway after his older sister.

Jisoo knows she ought to feel better now that things are getting fixed, but she only feels worse. _A fucking ten-year-old could do it, why couldn’t you?_

She gets onto her feet and replaces the photos she’d knocked off the wall. It seems like the entire family – Soobin included – had been on a picnic by the river, and her brother-in-law had been taking the photos, since he only showed up in one of them (a lopsided selfie with the kids in the background). Jisoo smiles.

Yoojung comes marching down the hallway with both her brothers wrapped in towels like haphazardly built burritos, but it’s still a better job than Jisoo would’ve done.

“I’ll get them dressed and tuck them in,” Yoojung says gently, carrying Soobin into the room and dragging Sanha by the corner of his towel.

“Okay.” Jisoo says to the door swinging closed on her.

It only takes a few minutes for Yoojung to come back out of the room again, one finger over her lips.

“They’re asleep?” Jisoo whispers.

“No, but if they think we’re having any fun, they’ll cry again.” Yoojung says sagely. “Let’s go downstairs and have h-o-t  c-h-o-c-o-l-a-t-e.”

Jisoo’s not going to say no to that. “Sure.”

 

“I’d murder someone for a coffee right now.” Yoonji groans.

Jennie edges away from her, but this train platform isn’t big enough for her to reach safety. “Uh, you probably shouldn’t be having coffee if you’re… you know…”

“Yeah, I know.” Yoonji says. “I haven’t had a coffee or a beer in _months_.”

“That’s good.”

Yoonji gives her a dry – in every sense of the word – look with her tired, reddening eyes. “No it isn’t.”

Jennie laughs anxiously as she scoots further away from Yoonji. “H- How long is it from your house to here?”

“Two hours, but only cause my dad’s a slow-ass driver. I could probably do it in one in my brother’s friend’s car.” Yoonji grins.

“Oh.” Jennie tries calculating how many more hours alone with Yoonji she needs to survive, but it’s not looking good for anyone involved.

 

“You’re not _that_ bad.” Yoojung says, stirring her hot chocolate before taking a little sip.

“You kidding? I’m a complete fu- _mess_ -up of an aunt, Yoojungie.” Jisoo sighs as she blows on the top of her mug. “I couldn’t even successfully give one Sanha a _bath_.”

“Even Daddy can’t sometimes.” Yoojung shrugs.

Jisoo snorts at the idea, but she still can’t get herself to laugh right now. “It’s a good thing you were there to fix everything.”

Yoojung just shrugs again.

“I mean, seriously, you’re what, _fifteen_ years younger than me and you got it done in like, a minute? Meanwhile I was just crying my eyes out like a loser.” Jisoo’s shoulders sag. “I’m really sorry.”

“You’re not a loser, Auntie Jisoo,” Yoojung says quietly. “You’re just not used to a lot of kids.”

“Three isn’t a lot.”

“Yeah, but you’re Daddy’s little sister. You don’t have any little brothers.” Yoojung says. “So you only know how to be a little sister. I only know how to be a big sister.”

Jisoo blows thoughtfully on the skin forming on her hot chocolate. “Yeah, I guess.”

“I wish I had an older sister.” Yoojung takes another sip of her hot chocolate.

“Well, uh, who knows, maybe your dads will adopt a big sis-”

“My dads like adopting babies, not big kids.”

Jisoo tries to smile for Yoojung’s sake. “Yeah, uh, yes they certainly do. But that’s okay, right?”

“Yeah, it’s okay.” Yoojung sips her hot chocolate again. Then she gives Jisoo a brown-stained grin. “I just wanted a big sister to steal clothes and makeup from.”

“You’re too young for makeup.” Jisoo says flatly. “But when you’re older, I could totally teach you.”

“Really?” Yoojung beams. “Because Daddy’s against makeup-”

“Your Daddy is a _theater actor_ , he wears tons of makeup!”

“That’s what I said!”

“He’s being an ass.”

Yoojung giggles. “ _Auntie Jisoo!_ ”

“Oh crap- I mean, shit- Well, fuck.” Jisoo groans and leans forward to slam her forehead on the desk, but it hits her mug first. “Ow.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I just suck at being an aunt.” Jisoo rubs a line of chocolate off her forehead. “And a grown-up in general. Don’t be like me when you grow up, okay?”

Yoojung frowns. “But you’re pretty cool, Auntie Jisoo.”

“No I’m not.”

“You are!” Yoojung insists, kicking adamantly at the legs of the kitchen table. “You’re your own boss and stuff because you own the whole business. That’s cool.”

Jisoo smiles weakly. _The kid’s not wrong, but she’s not right, either._

“And besides, you’re not the worst baby-sitter we’ve had.” Yoojung pats Jisoo on the hand.

Jisoo frowns. “Who could be _worse_ than _me_?”

 

“Yoonji.”

Jennie’s standing a meter away (for safety) as she pokes Yoonji gently on the arm. The latter had fallen asleep standing – well, leaning against a pillar – and Jennie had been too afraid to stop her. But there’s a car that’s just pulled up at the end of the road, and a tall guy seems to be stepping out of it.

“Yoonji, I think your dad’s here.”

“Ha- Huh?” Yoonji jolts awake, whacking Jennie in the face. “Oh shit, sorry.”

“Noit’sokayI’mgood,” Jennie mumbles back in one breath, holding her sore nose.

The passenger-side door of the car opens, and a smaller, rounder figure steps out.

“I thought it was just your dad picking us up?” Jennie asks, but Yoonji seems frozen to the spot as the two figures crunch down the gravel path to the platform.

“Oh fuck.” Yoonji breathes.

“MIN FUCKING YOONJI!” The woman screams, breaking into a run for the platform.

“Honey!” The man gasps, breaking into a run after her. “Don’t run!”

“I’M GOING TO FUCKING _KILL_ YOU!” The woman leaps up three steps onto the platform, and when she steps into the light it becomes very obvious to Jennie that she’s around Yoonji’s age, and very, _very_ pregnant.

“JIWOO PLEASE!” Yoonji manages to squeak out before the woman practically pounces on her.

The man steps onto the platform to find the woman, whom Jennie assumes to be his wife, pulling at Yoonji’s hair.

“Here we go again.” He groans.


	9. Jennie Meets The Family… Well, Someone’s Family, At Least

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Hi, I’m Yoonji.” The little girl absolutely invading Jennie’s personal space says. 
> 
> “Yoonji.” Jennie tries not to grimace. “ _Lovely_ name.”
> 
> “Thanks, Mommy picked it out.” The Little Yoonji says, plopping down on the probably five empty square inches of Jennie’s bedroll. “What’s your name?”
> 
> “Jennie.”
> 
> “That’s a cool name.”
> 
> “Thanks. My girl-” Jennie catches herself. “My _friend_ picked it out.”
> 
> Yoonji frowns. “That can’t happen.”
> 
> “Why not?”

Jennie hadn’t expected her evening to go like this at all, but things have gotten so out of hand that she’s stopped expecting anything altogether.

So she’s a weird kind of _zen_ as she stands between two ridiculously strong pregnant women attempting to fight each other at nearly eleven in the fucking evening.

“Honey, please,” Jiwoo’s husband begs, but he’s standing a safe distance away, unlike Jennie. She’d managed to pick up the woman’s name from all the screaming, but her kind-of-cute husband’s name is a mystery Jennie no longer has energy or brain cells for.

“IF I GET A FUCKING MISCARRIAGE BECAUSE OF YOUR EXTRA ASS-!”

“IF _I_ GET A FUCKING MISCARRIAGE-”

“FUCK YOU, MAN!”

“NO, FUCK _YOU!_ ”

Jennie lets out a long, wordless scream. She’s had enough.

Surprisingly enough, both of the women clamp their mouths shut and step back, mumbling apologies. Jiwoo’s husband figures it’s a safe time to step in, so he wraps an arm protectively around his wife. “Protectively” here meaning Jennie and Yoonji are now safe from her.

Jennie heaves a sigh. “I’m sorry, but I’m tired and I don’t even know who you guys are or where we are and I have a class tomorrow at _nine_ and I don’t know what I’m going to do anymore.”

Yoonji lowers her head. “You really didn’t have to come.”

“You think a normal decent person’s going to let _your tragic ass_ go running off on your own?” Jiwoo snaps, struggling against her husband’s protective bear hug.

“Shut the fuck up, you annoying slut!” Yoonji snaps at her, and Jennie raises an arm between them. To accomplish what, Jennie doesn’t know.

“ _I’m_ the slut?” Jiwoo manages to snake an arm out and flick Yoonji on the belly. “At least _I_ was fucking the dad of my six kids. What’s _your_ excuse?”

“S- _Six_?” Jennie sputters out.

Yoonji smirks. “Yeah, she got started early.”

“More like you got started _late_.” Jiwoo rolls her eyes.

They exchange one very intense look for a second that has the hairs on Jennie’s arms bristling in fear, then they shove past Jennie and jump into a loud, screechy kind of hug.

“Welcome to the Irresponsible Sluts Club!” Jiwoo squeals, nuzzling her head into the crook of Yoonji’s neck.

“That’s real sweet coming from the founding member.” Yoonji says with a saccharine, gummy smile.

“Fuck you, bitch.” Jiwoo says affectionately.

Jennie looks up at Jiwoo’s husband for help, because her brain is fried and all she can think of is a warm bed and a soft bath.

“Hi, sorry, they’ve been like this since high school.” He rubs the back of his neck apologetically, like a typical father of six kids. “I’m Jiwoo’s husband Minho, by the way. You are?”

“I’m Jennie.” Jennie accepts an awkward sweaty handshake. “I’m Yoonji’s brother’s sister-in-law’s ex.”

Minho squints at her for a solid minute.

“Nice to meet you, Jennie.” He says, after clearly giving up working that one out.

“You too.”

 

Jin jolts awake to find himself on a strange couch in a strange room. Yoongi’s asleep on his shoulder, which is numb and aching like a bitch at the same time, but Jin’s holding it steady like his life depends on it as he listens to Yoongi’s gentle snore. Hoseok and Jimin are on the other lounge chair, finally fast asleep, partly thanks to the stuff Jin had slipped into the coffee. Jungkook and Taehyung are asleep on the rug, even though they’d just split one mug of coffee between them.

“This is a crime at best.” Yoongi had said, frowning at the packets of herbs Jin had brewed into the coffee a while ago.

“They’re stressed.” Is all Jin had said in reply.

He looks over at Hoseok and Jimin, their outlines lit only by the greenish light of a cellphone on the coffee table. Jin sits up, forgetting about Yoongi for a split second. _Whose phone is that? Someone’s calling?_

“Jin?” Yoongi murmurs from where he’d fallen between Jin’s back and the couch.

“Oh, sorry,” Jin gently lowers Yoongi’s head onto a throw pillow as he gets up. He frowns down at the phone. It’s not his or Yoongi’s so it must belong to either one of Yoonji’s boyfriends. Jin squints at the name of the person calling.

“What’s that light?” Yoongi mumbles, covering his eyes.

“It’s one of their phones, someone’s calling.” Jin replies, cupping his hands over Yoongi’s eyes to shield them. “Do we know a Jiwoo?”

Yoongi shoots upright like a mousetrap. “Jiwoo?”

“Yeah, who-”

Yoongi leans his entire body across the table to grab the phone and pick up the call. “Jiwoo? It’s me, Yoongi, yeah.”

Jin wraps his arms around Yoongi’s waist, resting his chin on Yoongi’s shoulder as he listens in.

“-and we’re like, what the fuck, why is Aunty calling in the middle of the damn night – Yes I _know_ it was just eight thirty, darling-”

“Is that uh, Minho?” Yoongi asks, his frown lit up by the phone screen.

“Yeah, he’s driving. He says hi, you should grab a beer with him sometime, blah blah guy stuff.” Jiwoo replies. Jin doesn’t recognize the voice, but whoever she is, she’s loud enough that he doesn’t even have to lean in to hear her. His worry is that she’ll wake Hoseok and Jimin up, but they seem to be out _cold_ cold. As it is, Jungkook and Taehyung seem to be stirring from where they’re tangled on the floor. “Anyway, your mom called us up to ask us to pick your damn sister up from the fucking train station in the middle of the fucking night-”

“It was just _EIGHT THIRTY_!” A familiar voice protests from somewhere near Jiwoo’s phone.

“ _Yoonji_?” Jin and Yoongi ask at once.

“Oh god.” Yoonji’s voice is quieter.

“Yeah, I don’t know what the fuck she’s been smoking, but yeah, she’s here.” Jiwoo says. “So please tell Hoseok and Jimin they can chill, their woman’s doing fine and she might stay here for a day or two.”

“Jiwoo, wait-” Yoongi starts, but he’s cut off by a hand that seems to appear out of the darkness near the phone.

“Can I talk to her?” Jimin asks, his voice a little rough and groggy, but he’s wide awake.

Yoongi hands him the phone, exchanging a look with Jin that seems to say, _I have no idea what’s going on but honestly, it’s not as bad as I thought. I think._

“Hi, Jiwoo, it’s me, Jimin. Can you put Yoonji on the line?” Jimin asks, his voice polite as usual, but weirdly even.

 

“Jimin.” Is all Jiwoo says as she tosses the phone to Yoonji in the back seat.

“Oh god he’s back I completely forgot.” Yoonji catches the phone for only a split second before passing it on to Jennie like a hot potato. Jennie tries to pass it back, but Yoonji sits on her hands, shaking her head.

Jennie clears her (very) dry throat and puts the phone to her ear.

Jimin doesn’t seem to have stopped talking. “…and I swear to every god I’m going to-”

“Hi Prof- I mean, Jimin.” Jennie says, making a face at herself.

“ _Jennie_?”

“Hi, haha, yeah, it’s me.” Jennie slaps herself on the forehead. “Yoonji’s here too, I’m going to give her the pho-”

Yoonji yelps and pushes the phone away when Jennie tries to give it to her.

“Okay, so maybe later, but she’s here and she’s okay,” Jennie says. “I’m sorry if you were worried about her, I should’ve called or something-”

“No, Jennie, that’s not your problem.” Jimin sighs. “Can you just tell her to-”

Jennie waits for him to finish his sentence, but all she gets are a string of lazy beeps from the phone. She holds it away from her face to find that the call’s ended for some reason.

“Did he hang up?” Yoonji asks anxiously.

“No… _I_ did?” Jennie frowns at the phone, which blinks back to a lockscreen with a whole gaggle of kids making rude faces at the camera. She tries to call Jimin back – Jiwoo’s phone doesn’t have a passcode, for some reason – but the call doesn’t pull through. “I think something’s up with your phone, Miss Jiwoo.”

“ _Miss Jiwoo_ ,” Jiwoo echoes, grinning at the novelty. “No, sweetie, there just isn’t any reception around here.”

“The cell tower’s been down for months.” Her husband adds helpfully.

“Oh.” Jennie says, having never lived without cell reception in her life.

 

“What the _fuck_.” Jimin’s been staring at Hoseok’s phone for a whole minute now. Jin’s gotten the lights, so he can see the concerned looks on his and Yoongi’s faces, the utterly confused looks on Jungkook’s and Taehyung’s, and the unreadable one on Hoseok’s.

“She hung up?” Yoongi frowns.

“Who, Yoonji?” Jungkook frowns.

“Why is Jennie there?” Jin frowns much deeper.

“Hold up, who’s Jennie?” Taehyung asks, raising his hand.

Hoseok doesn’t say anything. He just stands up, plucks his jacket off the coathanger, and scoops his keys from the key bowl by the door.

He’s tying his shoelaces calmly when Jimin finally pipes up.

“Hoseok, where are you going?”

Hoseok turns and smiles at him, but it’s a closed-lipped, tired smile. “I’m going to fetch Yoonji.”

Jimin glances at the clock on the wall before looking back at Hoseok with a worried expression. “It’s late-”

“Then there won’t be anyone else on the road.” Hoseok twirls the keyring around his finger before opening the front door.

“Hoseok, wait!” Jimin pads down the hallway in his socks, grabbing his own jacket and stuffing his feet into his sneakers. “You can’t drive all the way there on your own. We can take turns.”

“Fine.”

“We’re coming with!” Jin says suddenly, but Yoongi grabs his arm.

“We have to get back to the kids.” Yoongi says.

“But Yoonji’s _your_ sister-”

“And we left our kids with _your_ sister-”

“Jin-hyung, Yoongi-hyung, we’ll go on ahead.” Hoseok says firmly. “You should go home to your family.”

Jin and Yoongi open their mouths to argue as they usually do when someone tells them what to do, but they find themselves saying instead, “Okay.”

“We can come with you guys.” Taehyung says, hands curled into purposeful fists.

“No, you should get some real rest.” Hoseok’s voice doesn’t go above a gentle whisper, but it’s weirdly stern. “Go home.”

Taehyung bites down on his lip, but Jungkook finds himself saying, “Okay.” for them both.

“Thanks for your help, everyone.” Hoseok says. “Come on, Jimin.”

“Okay.” Jimin replies, with the same confused compliance.

 

Jennie wakes up the next morning to find a small face literally an inch away from hers. She’d been complaining – internally, of course, now that she has no one to complain to in person – about waking up alone, so probably Whoever’s looking after her decided to grant her wish. In a very genie-ish way.

“H- Hello.” Jennie tires to squirm away, but her bedroll is already up against the wall.

“Hi, I’m Yoonji.” The little girl absolutely invading Jennie’s personal space says.

“Yoonji.” Jennie tries not to grimace. “ _Lovely_ name.”

“Thanks, Mommy picked it out.” The Little Yoonji says, plopping down on the probably five empty square inches of Jennie’s bedroll. “What’s your name?”

“Jennie.”

“That’s a cool name.”

“Thanks. My girl-” Jennie catches herself. “My _friend_ picked it out.”

Yoonji frowns. “That can’t happen.”

Jennie sits up, grinning. “Why not?”

“Your Mommy and Daddy are supposed to pick your name.” Yoonji says matter-of-factly. “Unless your Daddy is like mine and he just says yes to whatever Mommy says.”

“Well,” Jennie rubs the sleep out of her eyes. “My Mommy and Daddy aren’t like yours, I guess. My friend was the one who came up with the name everyone calls me.”

“That’s weird.”

Jennie shrugs. “I guess so.”

“Song Yoonji!” Jiwoo’s voice echoes from her bedroom. “Come here so Mommy can put a band-aid on your elbow!”

“I’ll talk to you later.” Yoonji gives Jennie a solemn nod before running out of the living room.

The room reminds her a little bit of the one in the house where she grew up – no, the one where she lived before her dad walked out on them. The couch seems almost kissing the TV, and even so, someone’s managed to squeeze in a shelf of knickknacks nobody really owns and little medals nobody really reads.

Jennie, being Jennie, crouches over to try to read some of the medals. Jiwoo’s kids seem to be into basketball, or at least, they’re good at it. Jennie knows more than anyone else that medals mean practically nothing.

“Hey.”

Jennie looks up guiltily, but it’s just Yoonji leaning against the divider between the living room and the kitchen. “Oh, hey. How are you feeling?”

“Passable.” Yoonji shrugs. “Better than yesterday.”

“That’s good.”

“Yeah.” Yoonji shrugs again. Jennie’s just gotten the inkling that there’s something else she wants to say, but in true Min Yoonji fashion, she just goes out and says it. “Sorry, I kinda overheard you awhile ago and I wanted to ask you how you’re doing. Since you broke up with Jisoo and shit.”

“ _And shit_ ,” Jennie repeats with a grin.

“Sorry, it’s too damn early in the morning.” Yoonji scrunches up her nose. “Mini me woke me up, too.”

Jennie stretches her arms over her head. “You’re going to have an _actual_ mini you in a couple of months-”

“Don’t fucking remind me.”

“Sorry.”

“And we were talking about you, not me.” Yoonji crosses her arms. “So?”

“So…” Jennie screws her face up. Somehow, she’s not given her breakup much thought even though it’s the only thing she could think of for the past couple of days. “I’m fine, really. I mean, I feel bad, of course. But I’m fine.”

“Why’d you break up?”

Jennie makes a face. “You’re really going there? At-” Jennie frowns at a Hello Kitty clock on the wall. “- _Eight_ in the morning?”

“Yes.” Yoonji sits on the nearest end table, though the entire couch and two rocking chairs are available.

“You’re just trying to avoid talking about your own problems, aren’t you?”

“Yes, _duh_.” Yoonji laughs, making a wide gesture with both arms. “So please, tell me _all_ about yours.”

Jennie sighs, settling into one of the bamboo rocking chairs. She’s rocking back and forth aimlessly for a while, wondering how best to say things without hurting anyone, until she settles on, “We broke up because we didn’t have time for each other.”

“Are you kidding me?” Yoonji snorts. “Jisoo only goes to work for four hours a day.”

“Well, yes, but she’s still busy, and I’m always studying-”

“You’re not studying now.”

Jennie wishes the little Yoonji would come back and talk to her instead. “I’m not studying _now_ because someone had a complete breakdown yesterday and I couldn’t just _abandon_ her, could I?”

Yoonji looks down at her knees. “Right. Sorry. Anyway, back to you.” Yoonji folds her hands under her chin. “What did Jisoo do?”

Jennie frowns. “Why do you think it’s Jisoo’s fault?”

“Because I know her better, and she’s a little shit.” Yoonji lifts her eyebrows until they disappear behind her fringe. “What, am I wrong?”

Jennie had made a deal with herself the morning after Jisoo had left her, and it was this: She would never say anything bad about Jisoo, no matter how bad she felt.

“It’s not her fault.” Jennie says firmly. “It’s nobody’s fault. Things are just different now. That’s all it is.”

Yoonji’s eyebrows don’t come down again for a long while, but she just shrugs.

“Uh,” Jiwoo says, leaning through the archway to the kitchen, where she must’ve been standing the past few minutes. “I’m probably cutting into something important here, but there’s a car in front of the house and it’s much nicer than ours.”

Yoonji’s eyes go wide as Jennie pulls back the curtain to peek outside. Sure enough, there’s a navy blue SUV coming to a stop on the street outside.

“Oh no.” Yoonji squeaks out.

 

“Hi Jimin,” Jiwoo says, opening the door. “Hoseok,”

“Hi.” Hoseok says in a terrifyingly blank tone.

“Where’s Yoonji?” Jimin asks.

“I’m right here.” The six-year-old Yoonji says, looking up at Jimin with saucer eyes.

Jimin’s mouth breaks into a smile despite himself. He crouches over and pats the Little Yoonji on the head. “I was asking about your Auntie Yoonji, sweetie.”

“She’s hiding in the vegetables.” Little Yoonji replies promptly.

“ _Yoonji_.” Jiwoo shuts her eyes and looks heavenwards in embarrassment.

“And where are the vegetables?” Jimin asks.

“Behind the house.” Little Yoonji points down the hallway to the back door.

“Thank you, Small Yoonji.” Jimin pats her on the head again.

“My name is _just_ Yoonji.”

“Of course, my bad.”

 

“ _Fuck_.” Yoonji mutters under her breath from where she’s squatting next to the squash vines. The back door of the house slams shut, wiggling the metal screen. They can hear Jiwoo’s voice still desperately trying to make excuses, but it’s been a long time since her delinquent days, and she’s not very convincing.

“You knew this wouldn’t work.” Jennie says, from where she’s trying not to trample on some cabbage. “I don’t even know why I have to be here.”

“Because you said you wouldn’t leave me alone.”

“Not like _this_!”

Two shadows fall over Jennie and Yoonji and the vegetables growing innocently between them.

“Hi, Jennie, thanks for looking after our girl.” Jimin’s arms are crossed. Yoonji’s breath hitches in her throat. “Could we talk to her alone, please?”

“Of course.” Jennie practically leaps to her feet and starts brushing the dirt off her jeans.

“ _Traitor_.” Yoonji mutters under her breath, but Jennie’s already broke into a run for the house.

Yoonji takes a deep breath to steady herself as she slowly, shamefully rises to her feet. Her gaze is lowered to the cucumbers, but she doesn’t need to look up to know that Jimin’s probably standing there with his arms crossed and eyes narrowed, and Hoseok’s probably fidgeting around with that worried-out-of-his-mind expression and his hair all over the place.

“Sorry I wasn’t able to pick you up from the airport.” Yoonji says, still staring down at the cucumbers.

“Fuck that.” Jimin says. “What the hell is wrong with you? What are you doing _here_? Why did you just run off without telling anyone-”

“I panicked, okay? I had a fucking episode yesterday. It was like a whole fucking _season_ , actually.” Yoonji looks up, and sure enough, Jimin’s got that narrow-eyed, pouty judging look, but Hoseok scares her a little. He doesn’t seem concerned or angry, or anything, really. His face is entirely blank, like he’s fast asleep with his eyes open.

Jimin steps over the cucumbers and takes Yoonji in his arms. “What the hell happened to you?”

Yoonji knees wobble, and she lets herself rest against his body. After everything, and despite everything, it feels so good that she closes her eyes. “I’m sorry. I was freaking out and I didn’t know who else to go to and I wasn’t thinking straight-”

“Yoonji.” Jimin cuts her off. “What happened?”

“She’s pregnant.” Hoseok says softly, but it’s as if the entire world held its breath for that exact moment to give him complete silence.

Yoonji’s shoulders tense up guiltily. _He knew?_

Jimin turns to face him. “Why didn’t any of you tell me? I was just a call away-”

“She didn’t tell me, either.” Hoseok says, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

“How did you know?” Yoonji asks nervously.

“What kind of a boyfriend would I be if I didn’t even notice something like _that_?” Hoseok grumbles, before turning off to walk away.

“Hoseok, wait,” Yoonji breaks out of Jimin’s arms and jumps over the vegetables to go after him. “I’m sorry, I didn’t- I wasn’t really thinking, Hoseok, I’m sorry I’m a fuckup and I just didn’t know what-”

“Do you even know why I’m mad?” Hoseok turns to face her again, and he’s glaring down at her so intensely that Yoonji’s knees start to give in again.

“B- because I ran off without telling you and…” Yoonji wishes he would just get angry with her, not look down at her with that deeply disappointed look that makes her just want to keel over and die. She sits down helplessly onto the weeds. “Okay, I don’t really know, but I’m sorry.”

“Get up, Yoonji,” Jimin says, coming up behind her to help her up. He wraps his arms under hers, holding her up from behind while he frowns at Hoseok. “Let’s not fight here, okay? Let’s just go home.”

Hoseok starts for the house without another word.

Someone opens the back door before Hoseok can even reach for it. “Yoonji! Oh my god!”

 

Jennie’s had a rough couple of days. She’s had an especially rough evening last night and early morning today, so she’s expecting things to calm down now that Yoonji’s boyfriends have come to pick her up.

She’s wrong.

“Miss Jiwoo, someone’s at the door,” Jennie says, frowning as a sleek black luxury car rolls to a stop outside the house.

“Just open it, Minho probably forgot something!” Jiwoo shouts back from the kitchen.

Jennie opens her mouth to say that it is most definitely _not_ Jiwoo’s husband when the door to the car open. She doesn’t recognize the guy driving, but he runs around and opens the passenger side door, and who should step daintily out of the car but Jennie’s favorite actress of all time?

“Uh, M- Miss Jiwoo?” Jennie calls out.

“What?”

“It’s K- _Kwon Nara_!?”

Jiwoo comes running out of the kitchen with soap bubbles up to her forearms, but she peers over Jennie’s shoulder and out the window. “You didn’t say my husband’s fucking _boss_ was with her!”

“I don’t- He’s- _What_?” Jennie babbles, her brain still fried from how radiant Kwon Nara is in real life.

Jiwoo wipes her hands on her housedress and adjusts it anxiously before opening the door. “Nara-unnie! Mr. Kim! What a surprise!”

“Hi, good morning,” The beloved actress says, head titled with a sweet smile. “I know you’re probably busy and I’m so sorry to bother you, but is Yoonji still here?”

Jiwoo’s jaw goes slack while she tries to come up with something to say. “Ah, uh, er, you see-”

“Out back.” Jennie blurts out. “She’s in the vegetables, Miss Kwon Nara… ma’am.”

“Oh thank you, dear.” Kwon Nara gives Jennie a kind smile that Jennie burns into her mind for the rest of her life. “Come on, Joonie.”

Jennie frowns as the eponymous ‘Joonie,’ whom Jiwoo had just said was her husband’s boss, turns out to be a pretty young-looking guy in ridiculously crisp clothes. He would seem more like someone’s boss, actually, if he hadn’t trailed after Kwon Nara like a puppy on a leash. _Who can blame him, though?_

“Jennie, what the _hell_?” Jiwoo asks when the couple have disappeared out the back door.

“I- I don’t know- _Why is Kwon freaking Nara here_?”

“Because she’s Yoonji’s friend!”

“Yoonji is friends with _KWON NARA_?”

“Yes, and she’s the wife of my husband’s boss so please keep your voice fucking down!” Jiwoo says, whacking Jennie on the arm. “Calm the fuck down!”

“ _You_ calm down!”

The backdoor swings open again, and Jennie and Jiwoo clamp their own mouths down.

“…and you’ll stay for lunch, won’t you?” Kwon Nara’s voice carries down the hallway. “If you don’t mind waiting while I cook.”

“I’m sure the cook’s making lunch already,” Her husband says softly.

“I’m sorry, Nara-unnie, but I’ve imposed on enough people as it is,” Yoonji says. “Maybe next time.”

“It’s not imposing on us! I’ve been trying to have you over for _years_ ,” Nara says, looping her arm around Yoonji’s. “Besides, don’t you want to see the twins?”

Yoonji’s face pales more than usual. “Oh fuck, did you guys tell my brother I was-”

“Missing? Of course.” Jimin says, his hand intertwined with Hoseok’s, though the latter hasn’t said anything in a while. “And he already knows you’re here.”

“Oh god, did you tell _everyone_?”

“What else were we supposed to do?” Jimin snaps, and Yoonji lowers her head.

“So!” Kwon Nara says, desperately cheery. “Let’s all have lunch at our place? Yes? Everyone’s invited!” She looks at Jennie and Jiwoo, her smile faltering slightly “You should come too, uh…I’m sorry, I didn’t get your names.”

“Jiwoo.” Jiwoo says.

“Jiwoo.” Jennie echoes. Then she shakes her head. “I mean, Jennie. I’m Jennie.”

“Nice to meet you both! You’ll join us for lunch, won’t you?”

 

Yoonji picks at the handle of the door the entire car ride to the Kims’ mansion. Jimin’s driving, Jiwoo’s sitting behind him with Little Yoonji on her lap, Jennie’s sitting in the middle seat, and Yoonji’s sitting behind Hoseok, who still hasn’t said anything.

“You took the train?” Jimin asks vaguely.

“Yeah.” Jennie answers.

“How long was your trip?” Jimin asks.

“Six hours.” Jennie answers. “Yours?”

“Oh, us? More like eight.” Jimin says. “There was a road being resurfaced along the way and we were stuck there for an hour.”

“That sucks.” Jennie says.

“Yeah.” Jimin says.

“What does _resurfaced_ mean?” Little Yoonji asks.

“They’re rebuilding the road so it’s smooth.” Jimin answers.

“Why?” Little Yoonji asks.

“So it’s easier for the cars to drive on it.” Jiwoo answers.

“Why?” Little Yoonji asks again.

“Because cars don’t do well when there are bumps on the road.” Jimin answers.

Yoonji’s just looking at Hoseok’s elbow on the armrest in front of her. She and Jimin fight a lot, almost like they do it for sport, but those fights blow over quickly, and she’s back in his arms again in a minute. Things are different with Hoseok. Yoonji’s never made Hoseok this _upset_ , and she’s worried that things might not just blow over when Nara stuffs everyone with lunch.

She rests her hands on the base of her stomach, even if she knows that the baby’s definitely not big enough for her to feel her kicking around yet. Knowing she’s there is making everything worse. _What if Hoseok leaves me? What am I going to do?_

Jimin parks the car along the driveway and helps Yoonji out, though she doesn’t need it.

Yoonji tightens her grip around Jimin’s hand. _Jimin won’t leave me, right?_

“You can wait in the lounge here on the first floor while we’re getting things ready,” Nara says, making a sweeping gesture down one of the three hallways off the main receiving area. “We’ll be in the cozier dining room by the, uh…” Nara seems to frown at how big her own house is.

“Yoonji already knows her way around here, remember?” Namjoon says, his cheeks reddening slightly. He looks at Yoonji, who also blushes despite herself. “We’ll have lunch in the North dining room in about half an hour.”

“Okay.” Yoonji grimaces remembering the last time she’d been there.

“I like your house.” Little Yoonji says, shamelessly letting go of her mom’s hand and taking Nara’s. “It’s like a castle.”

“Aw, thanks, but it’s my husband’s family’s house, not mine.” Nara smiles.

Little Yoonji seems to study Nara’s figure then look back judgingly at her own mom’s. “Do you have kids?”

“Yes, I have twins.” Nara says. “Do you want to meet them?”

“There are _only_ two?” Little Yoonji asks warily.

“Yes, only two.” Nara laughs.

“Then yes, I want to meet them.” Little Yoonji says. “Come on, Mommy, don’t get lost.”

Jiwoo rolls her eyes. “Your Daddy’s going to lose his mind when he finds out about this.”

Jennie glances back at Yoonji, then at Jiwoo.

“Uh, I’ll just stay with you guys,” She says, jogging after Jiwoo.

Yoonji opens her mouth to try to call Jennie back, but they all vanish into a hallway, leaving Yoonji alone between Jimin and Hoseok.

“Crap.” Yoonji says quietly.

Jimin puts an arm around her shoulders, which would normally be a pretty friendly gesture, but this time it’s a little bit threatening, like he’s saying, _You’re not going anywhere._

“Where did they say that lounge was again?” He asks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hopefully the length and number of characters in this chapter make up for how long it took but anywAY THANKS TO ALL THE PPL STILL HANGING ONTO THIS FIC I APPRECIATE IT


	10. The Gang Goes Down To Soju Town

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Well, I never took your brother and his husband for the type to throw books at their kids when they didn’t do their homework.” Jennie chuckles, but it’s a dry, heartless kind of laugh. 
> 
> Jisoo laughs the same way. “Your mom did that too, didn’t she?”
> 
> “Yeah.” Jennie says. “Good thing iPads weren’t a thing yet.”
> 
> “Yeah, or my mom would probably have cracked my skull open because of Club Penguin.” Jisoo turns the empty bottle around in her hands. 
> 
> “Club Penguin.” Jennie snorts.
> 
> “Cause of death: Club Penguin.” Jisoo snorts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alternatively titled,  
> 

“I’m sorry.” Yoonji says as soon as the door to the lounge closes behind Hoseok and Jimin.

“What about?”

“I…” Yoonji wants to scream. Or she wants them to scream at her. That would be much better. _That_ she can deal with. _This, on the other hand…_ She finds herself looking up at Hoseok’s stony expression. “I’m really fucking stupid, you’re going to have to lay everything out in the open for me.”

Hoseok purses his lips.

“Hoseok, please.” Yoonji tugs on the edge of his sleeve. “If you’re going to break up with me, please just do it-”

“You _are_ pretty fucking stupid, aren’t you?” Hoseok says.

Jimin gives him a sharp look, but doesn’t say anything.

Yoonji frowns, her eyes starting to burn. _Am I crying? What the_ hell _?_

“Yes, I am.” She blubbers.

She’s expecting the worst, but then Hoseok reaches out and brushes a tear off Yoonji’s cheek with his thumb, looking vaguely amused.

“Don’t laugh at me.” Yoonji jerks away from his hand, blinking the annoying-ass tears out of her eyes. “That’s mean.”

Hoseok laughs, knocking into the door behind him. Jimin’s hand flies up to cover his mouth, but his shoulders are shaking.

“Stop it!” Yoonji rubs her eyes on the backs of her hands. “I’m fucking _fragile_ don’t fuck with me!”

“Okay, okay,” Hoseok says gently, taking Yoonji’s hands away from her face and into his own. “How am I supposed to be mad at you when you’re acting like a toddler?”

“I can’t help it, okay, it’s like someone took my fucking brain out and replaced it with a _cheeseburger_ -”

“A cheeseburger?” Hoseok grins.

Jimin tries to pretend to cough to mask his laughter. “Are you hungry?”

“Yes.” Yoonji groans. “All the time.”

“Come here.” Hoseok holds his arms out, and Yoonji walks into them without question.

“I’m still mad at you,” Hoseok says, brushing her hair with one hand and patting her butt with the other.

“I still don’t know why.” Yoonji says, feeling weirdly calm from whatever the fuck Hoseok’s doing.

“Oh, my _stupid_ lady,” Hoseok laughs. “You can’t guess?”

Yoonji leans away from him for a moment to look up at him. It’s like the clouds clear around her cheeseburger brain for a moment.

“I didn’t tell you about it because I wasn’t sure.” Yoonji mumbles.

“Why didn’t you tell me even when you were?” Hoseok asks.

“Because…” Yoonji furrows her brow. “I don’t know.”

“Are you scared?”

“Yes.”

Jimin scoffs. “Do you even realize how scared _we_ were-”

“Jimin.” Hoseok says.

“Sorry.”

Hoseok takes Jimin by the hem of his shirt and pulls him closer so he can put his arms around both Jimin and Yoonji.

Yoonji feels like she’s been plugging up a dam of emotions with just her fingers, and the entire thing’s come down around her. She sobs into Hoseok’s chest like an absolute _loser_ , soaking his shirt through to the skin.

She manages to calm down enough – after blowing her nose into Hoseok’s shirt – to say, “I’m not ready to be a mom.”

“That’s okay.” Hoseok says.

Jimin and Yoonji both frown at him. “No it’s not.”

“It is.” Hoseok wraps his arms tighter around them both, breaking into a smile at their almost identical, skeptical nose scrunches. “We can’t be ready for everything that happens. That’s how life is.”

“The self-help shit is really _not_ helping right now, Seok.” Jimin mutters.

“All I’m saying is that we’re in this together.” Hoseok’s smile straightens out into a stern look. “And we’ll be fine.”

Yoonji and Jimin still look at him cynically, but just a tiny bit less so.

“We _will_ be fine.” Hoseok says firmly, like he’s ready to move heaven and earth with his bare hands if he has to. “And no more secrets between us, okay? _Any_ of us.”

“But I’m not even the one who-”

“Jimin.”

“Yeah, fine, okay.” Jimin buries his face in Hoseok’s shoulder. “I mean, yes.”

“Good.” Hoseok kisses him on the forehead. “What about you, Yoonji?”

“Yeah. I’m sorry I kept the baby- No, I’m sorry I _thought_ I could keep this shit secret from you.” Yoonji shakes her head in embarrassment. “And uh, while we’re on the topic of secrets…”

Jimin frowns. “What _now_?”

“It’s a girl.” Yoonji says abruptly. “Not that it matters, _duh_ , but… Yeah, we’re gonna have a baby girl.”

“Really?” Jimin asks, his cheeks getting red.

“Yeah.”

Yoonji looks up at Hoseok, who hasn’t said anything. _Of course he couldn’t, not when he’s smiling like that._ Hoseok’s smile is so wide and easy that for the first time in years, all the aches in Yoonji’s shoulders dissipate.

 

_I used to be a mathlete,_ Jennie reminds herself as she frowns at the table settings for lunch. _So why the fuck can’t I count???_

“Uh.” Jennie says out loud. National Treasure Kwon Nara turns to her curiously as she tucks her daughter into a high chair.

“What is it, Jennie?”

“Uh- Ah- Eh- Uhhh…” Jennie feels like she should call her mom up to tell her to just throw Jennie’s medals for extemporaneous speaking out.

“Why are there so many table settings?” Yoonji asks as she walks into the dining room.

It’s Beloved Actress Kwon Nara’s turn to squawk unintelligibly. “I- Ah- Uh- You see- Well- Uh-”

The double doors across the dining room swing open dramatically.

“Hi everyone! Sorry we’re late, there was a road being resurfaced and-” (Formerly) Beloved Actor Kim Seokjin stops dead in his tracks, frowning at Jennie. “Hi Jennie?”

“Hi.” Jennie grimaces as she gives him a little wave.

“Gaaaaa!” Soobin jumps around in Jin’s arms.

Yoongi, who’s a few steps behind Jin and holding their other two kids by their hands, looks anxiously back down the hallway. “Oh no.”

“Wait, _what_?” A voice from behind Jin asks as its owner comes down the hallway.

 

Jisoo stops dead in her tracks. The dining room of her brother-in-law’s best friend’s house is literally painted with gold, and the cutlery’s gleaming like they might be, too, but that sort of thing doesn’t bother her, however douchey that sounds. Kwon Nara’s strapping her kids into their high chairs, but Jisoo’s stopped getting startstruck since she started clubbing, so that doesn’t faze her, either.

“Hi Jisoo.” Jennie says weakly.

Jisoo’s rooted to the spot. “Hi.”

Jennie swallows. “I… um…”

“Yoongi!” A tall guy that Jisoo doesn’t remember the name of rushes into the room then and claps her brother-in-law on the back, _hard. Must be the guy who owns this house._ “So glad you guys could make it!”

Yoonji clears her throat. “Make it to _what_?”

Jisoo’s brother-in-law’s best friend – her head is starting to ache with the degrees of separation – _The guy who owns the house_ starts visibly sweating. “Huh? What do you mean, Yoonji?”

“Answer me straight up, Kim Namjoon.”

The guy seems to deflate a little bit in fear. “I- It’s just a-”

“It was my idea,” Kwon Nara says, stepping gingerly between Yoonji and Namjoon, whom Jisoo is just realizing must be Kwon Nara’s husband, because he looks just like her kids.

“Your idea to _what_?”

“Hold an, uh,” Kwon Nara chews on her lip. “ _Impromptu baby shower?_ ”

Yoonji glares at her silently, while Jimin sputters out, “That’s so thoughtful of you, but we haven’t told-”

“Okay, who the _fuck_ squealed on me?” Yoonji starts jabbing her finger at the air, accusing every living, breathing person in the room save for Soobin.

The rest of the room back off warily, pressing themselves as close to the walls and as far away from Yoonji as possible.

“It was me,” Jiwoo says, raising her hand slowly. “You _know_ I couldn’t keep a secret to save my life.”

“God fucking dammit, Jiwoo.” Yoonji groans.

Sanha and Yoojung look up at Yoongi with wide eyes.

“Bad words. Don’t repeat.” Yoongi mutters robotically.

“Look, Nara, this is all really kind of you,” Hoseok says, rubbing Yoonji’s shoulders to calm her down even just a little bit. “But we’re planning to keep this to as few people as possible until-”

The doors swing open again, slamming against the walls with a loud _bang_.

“MIN YOOOONJIII!” Beloved Actor Kim Taehyung squeals, running into the room with an armful of flowers in either hand. “I’M SO HAPPY FOR YOUUUUU!”

Yoonji accepts a tackle-hug from Taehyung, just because she physically stands no chance against him, and shakes his bodyguard’s hand when he extends it.

“Congrats on getting knocked up.” Jungkook says.

“Screw you,” Yoonji chuckles. “But thanks. And Taehyung, I can’t fucking breathe.”

Taehyung jumps away suddenly. “Oh. Did I squish you? I’m sorry.”

“It’s all good.” Yoonji coughs out. She’s about to say something else when she hears voices from outside the room. Namjoon’s house is the sort of giant, luxurious house where voices echo, but even so, it sounds like there are at least a _hundred_ people outside.

Yoonji turns to Nara with a cold look. “Who else have you invited?”

Nara’s grimace takes up half her face. “Just y- your family?”

Jimin gives her a horrified look. “You mean her parents?”

Namjoon sighs as he stuffs his hands into his pockets apologetically. “She means pretty much the entire town.”

 

Jisoo’s never tried the extended family thing, because their extended family on both sides are “worthless freeloading degenerates” (in her mother’s words) who only show up once every ten years to argue with Jin and Jisoo’s parents over money. Even then, she hasn’t spoken to her mother since she packed up and left over a year ago, and she hasn’t spoken to her father since he decided to pick her fucking _kidnapper_ ’s side over his actual, flesh-and-blood daughter’s.

So the sheer amount of noise and people who know each other in the dining room over that lunch is completely alien to Jisoo.

“Eat more vegetables, dear.” The grandma to her left says, scooping some stir-friend leafy thing onto Jisoo’s plate before Jisoo can deny it.

“Oh, thank you.” Jisoo says as politely as she can. She hates leafy dishes like this. _I’m not a goat._

“More beer?” The uncle across the table asks, placing an uncapped bottle of beer in front of Jisoo before she can say that she hates beer.

“Thank you.”

“Pass me the pork!”

“Give some to the little girl there!”

_What little girl? All the kids are on another fucking table!_ A scoop of some saucy pork dish is plopped onto Jisoo’s plate before she can say that she’s on a no-pork diet. _Oh. The little girl is me._

“Thank you,” Jisoo says graciously, just as a pile of seasoned bean sprouts lands on her plate. It’s starting to feel like an air raid of food she doesn’t like.

Jisoo’s trying to move all the leaves and bean sprouts to the side to recover the noodles she’d been eating earlier, when she just so happens to glance across the room.

Jennie’s sitting between the really pregnant lady and some old aunt kind of lady, politely trying – and failing – to refuse all the food they’re dumping on her plate.

“You’re too skinny!” The pregnant lady insists, pinching Jennie’s elbow. “How are you going to get laid when you’re-”

The aunt-like lady clears her throat loudly, shooting the pregnant lady a scandalized look.

“I’m not _that_ skinny.” Jennie mumbles.

“Yes, you are, dear.” The auntie says, heaping some more rice into Jennie’s bowl. “And Jiwoo’s right, men don’t like that.”

Jennie opens her mouth as if to say something, but she just nods placidly and stuffs a spoonful of rice in her mouth.

Jisoo smiles. _She_ is _too skinny. But she’s been like that forever._

It’s been around a week since Jisoo last saw Jennie, and Jisoo doesn’t know how she feels knowing that nothing seems to have changed. Jennie’s still skinny, and her eyes still have those deep purple circles around them from school. But she’s still laughing at the pregnant lady’s rude jokes, and trying to explain desperately to the aunt-like lady that she’s not _yet_ a doctor.

_It’s nice, I guess. Not that Jennie’s school works her to the bone, but that she seems to be fine without me._

“More vegetables, dear?”

Jisoo gapes at the grandma next to her, then at the fucking garden of greens lying untouched on her plate. _The audacity…_

“Thanks.” Jisoo says as more leaves come tumbling down onto her plate.

 

Jennie had an inkling that the old woman next to her has some pretty severe GERD based on what she’s describing to Jennie, but of course she doesn’t say it. “I’m really not a doctor, ma’am, you’ll have to go see a real doctor for that.”

Jennie sees Jisoo excuse herself from the table across the room, then walk over to her brother and whisper something. Her brother gets up then, and brings Jisoo over to Kwon Nara, and they whisper something to her, then Kwon Nara jumps to her feet and the Kim siblings insist she stay seated and there’s some more whispers exchanged before Jisoo leaves the room.

Jennie’s confused and curious, which is an awful combination.

“Uh, Miss Jiwoo?”

Jiwoo stops chewing, a pork bone clamped between her teeth. “Uh-huh?”

“Do you know where the bathroom is?”

Jiwoo spits out the bone onto her plate. “This is my first time in _here_ too, you know.” She says, like she’s talking about some kind of cathedral.

“I think I passed one on the way here, it’s just outside those doors.” The woman on Jennie’s other side says. She reaches across the table to tap a man on the arm. “Hey! Where’s the bathroom here?”

“How would I know? I don’t live here, Ma.”

“Useless!” The woman hisses at her son before cupping her hands to shout at a man further down the table. “Hey! Where’s the bathroom here? This girl wants to know!”

Jennie tries not to die of shame while the woman tries calling to a man at the next table.

“You know what, you’re better off just going looking for it.” Jiwoo says, gnawing at another pork bone.

“You’re right.” Jennie pushes her seat back a little. “Excuse me.”

The man across the table frowns. “What for?”

 

Jennie walks around – this house is basically a castle, and because of that, it’s basically a maze – until she finds a familiar silhouette outside one of the many doors to the garden.

Jennie opens the door gingerly. “Hey, Jisoo.”

Jisoo puts her beer down onto the step next to her as she turns around. “Oh. Hey.”

“Are you okay?”

Jisoo frowns at her for a moment, then the frown eases up. “Oh. Yeah, right. I’m fine. I just don’t do well with like… tons of people.”

“But you’re always at clubs.”

Jisoo grips her bottle of beer forcefully. “Don’t you think that’s kind of a low blow?”

“Sorry.” Jennie buries her face in one hand. She turns to go back into the house – she’s already got her hand on the doorknob – when she decides not to. “I’m sorry, I really meant to ask, like, how are you doing?”

“Okay.” Jisoo takes a sip of beer. “What about you?”

“I’m uh, same old, same old.” Jennie shrugs. “Still dying, but I’m good.”

“That’s good to hear.”

Jennie stands there with nothing else to do but watch Jisoo take another sip of beer, even though Jisoo _hates_ beer. _As far as_ I _know, anyway._

“I still have some stuff in the apartment.” Jisoo hums, putting her bottle down again.

The way she says ‘the apartment’ is so cold that Jennie is almost too stunned to reply. “I could put them in a box and-”

“Don’t. I’ll just get them while you’re at school or something.” Jisoo says. “I still have a key.”

“Okay.”

Jisoo takes another sip of beer, cringing visibly when she does.

Jennie stifles a laugh, but not well enough, so Jisoo spins around on her ass to scowl at Jennie. “What are you even doing all the way out here?”

Jennie sighs. “Yoonji showed up at our- _the_ apartment out of the blue asking me to bring her to a doctor. So I did,” Jennie makes a face. “And then we took a train here and I still don’t know why exactly… Did _you_ know that Yoonji’s friends with Kwon Nara?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh.” Jennie nods slowly. “Well that kinda blew my mind. Also I didn’t know she had kids.”

“Her PR team’s pretty good, I guess.”

“I guess.” Jennie turns for the door again, because this is starting to feel like one of those conversations that are more pain than they’re worth. _Starting to? It started out like that._

Jisoo’s bottle clinks against the floor again. “You’re missing class today.”

“Yeah, I am.” Jennie shudders as she remembers. “Why?”

“You never do that.”

Jennie takes a deep breath. She feels like everything she wishes she could say to Jisoo should be bubbling to the surface right now, but nothing’s coming. She has nothing to say.

“I’m sorry for all the shit I said to you the other night.”

Jennie can’t believe those words found their way out of Jisoo’s mouth, and she finds herself squatting next to Jisoo in utter confusion. “Are you drunk?”

“From half a bottle of beer? How weak do you fucking think I am?” Jisoo makes a face as she scoots away from Jennie. Then she pats the step next to her.

_Oh. She wants me to sit._ Jennie flops onto her butt gracelessly. “I’m sorry about the things I said about your friends-”

“Don’t be. They’re assholes.” Jisoo covers her fist with the edge of her sweater to mop up the puddle left behind by her beer bottle. “You were right.”

“Even so,” Jennie says. “I can’t control who your friends are.”

“Yeah, _I_ should be doing that.” Jisoo catches the deeply concerned look on Jennie’s face and laughs. “I’ve been ghosting them the past few days, and honestly it feels great.”

“That’s… not nice?” Jennie looks up at the sky like she’s trying to work it out in her head, though she never takes _that_ long for mental math. “Is it? Oh god.”

“I never liked them.” Jisoo scrunches up her nose. “And I absolutely hate clubs.”

Jennie needs to lean back on her palms, still frowning. “Then why did you…?”

Jisoo laughs so hard she has to put her bottle down. “If you could see your face right now-”

“I’m just trying to understand!”

“There’s nothing _to_ understand!” Jisoo laughs. “I don’t know! I don’t know why I do anything! I just do it all even if I hate it all, I just don’t know anymore!”

Jennie sighs. “And I’m _not_ supposed to be worried?”

Jisoo smiles at her. “Don’t you have enough things to be worried about already? Leave me to myself.”

“No.” Jennie shakes her head. “It sounds like you have some real problem-”

“I already know what it is.” Jisoo winks. “Look at me, self-diagnosing myself.”

“Jisoo-”

“I’ve had a lot of time to think at my brother’s place. It’s so weird living there.” Jisoo takes another sip of beer. “Their family’s so… _together_ that you really feel like you don’t belong even if they’re breaking their necks to make you feel included. It’s kinda sad.”

Jennie opens her mouth, but shuts it before she says something stupid like, _You can always come back home._

“And everyone knows what they’re doing,” Jisoo takes another sip from her nearly empty bottle. “My brother makes breakfast, my nephew and niece go to school, my brother-in-law goes to work – it’s like even the baby knows what he needs to do.”

“Like what?” Jennie makes a face.

“Eat and sleep and poop and stuff.” Jisoo snickers. “And I was helping Yoojung with her homework the other day, and I was asking her why she did her homework or studied at all-”

“How could you ask her that, Jisoo?”

“Because I was in a bad mood, obviously.” Jisoo downs the rest of her beer. “You know what she said?”

“I don’t know.”

“Guess.”

Jennie sighs. “Because, I don’t know… Who’s the one who gets mad when she doesn’t do it?”

“Both of them, and they don’t get _mad_.” Jisoo says. “The word she used was ‘upset.’ She doesn’t want her dads to get _upset_.”

“Well, I never took your brother and his husband for the type to throw books at their kids when they didn’t do their homework.” Jennie chuckles, but it’s a dry, heartless kind of laugh.

Jisoo laughs the same way. “Your mom did that too, didn’t she?”

“Yeah.” Jennie says. “Good thing iPads weren’t a thing yet.”

“Yeah, or my mom would probably have cracked my skull open because of Club Penguin.” Jisoo turns the empty bottle around in her hands.

“Club Penguin.” Jennie snorts.

“Cause of death: Club Penguin.” Jisoo snorts. Then she puts the bottle down. “I kinda miss that time, though.”

“How could you _miss_ abuse?” Jennie says, then she takes a breath. “Sorry. Was that too harsh?”

“No, okay, the like, actual abuse – I don’t miss that.” Jisoo says, pointing at their air with her bottle like she’s got presentation slides. “I just miss feeling like there’s a point to what I’m doing. Like, knowing that I was studying so I could get into this high school, so I could get into this college, and I could go to med school and become a doctor and ride off into the sunset in my Benz or whatever.”

Jennie turns to Jisoo, frowning. “But you hated all of that.”

“I did.” Jisoo shrugs. “But now I kinda miss it.”

“That’s… I don’t know what to say to that.”

“It’s okay.” Jisoo looks tenderly at Jennie, whose brow seems stuck scrunched up in a frown. “It was never your job to fix my problems.”

“No it isn’t, but I just want to help.”

“Of course you do, because you’re Jennie Kim. You’re perfect and nice and you don’t need to see the point in things to make you do things.” Jisoo says, waving the beer bottle around like a very short sword.

“Okay, maybe you _are_ a little drunk.” Jennie says, gently taking the empty bottle away from Jisoo. “I will just put this over here…”

“Yeah, I think I’m going to regret half the things I’m saying now.” Jisoo leans back to lay down on the carved stone steps. “If not all of it.”

“I hope not, because you actually said a lot of good stuff.” Jennie says. “And _I_ think you’re going to be okay.”

Jisoo smiles at her. “Thank you, Jennie.”

“And if you need any kind of support, I’ll just be here.”

Jisoo sticks her tongue into her cheek. “You know we’re not getting together after all this, right? I can’t do that.”

“Yeah, I get it.” Jennie laughs. “But I’ll still be here for you. You’re still my best friend.”

Jisoo closes her eyes. “Really? I thought we were just gonna throw away like 20 years of-”

“Friendship?” Jennie pokes Jisoo in the side. “We were _not_ friends for most of those years-”

“I was gonna say 20 years of dirt on each other.” Jisoo says, giggling as she squirms away from Jennie. “Kidding, I think we’ve been friends for a long time now, even if we didn’t realize it.”

“What?” Jennie laughs. “Jisoo, you are _drunk_ drunk.”

“No I’m not.” Jisoo sticks out her tongue. Then she covers her face with her hands. “Okay, maybe I’ve had a little more than _one_ bottle…”

 

“Thank you for coming. Thanks,” Yoonji accepts a hug from a neighbor she’d given a black eye to in grade school. “Thank you. Thanks for coming.”

She groans and rubs her sore back when the last of the guests closes the door behind them. She turns to Nara, who’d been explaining something about one of the vases in the entrance hall to Jimin.

“How do you do this _host_ shit?” Yoonji groans at Nara. “I’m so glad I didn’t actually marry Namjoon.”

Jimin grins and pulls her over by the arm. “So am I.”

Yoonji narrows her eyes at him. “Then again I wouldn’t mind all that money…”

“Yoonji.” Nara chides, blushing.

“Kidding, unnie, Namjoon’s _all yours_.” Yoonji says, sticking her tongue out.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Namjoon frowns as he comes into the room carrying one of the twins, the one with the big bow on her sparse hair. “Have you seen Taehyung?”

“He and Jungkook left a few minutes ago.” Nara frowns.

“No, our _son_ Taehyung.” Namjoon sighs. “Why did we even do this to ourselves? We could’ve named him _anything_ else-”

“My brother’s kidnapped him.” Yoonji says calmly. “He’s obsessed with the idea of a little Namjoon.”

“But _she_ looks more like me.” Namjoon says, holding his daughter out to Yoonji. Then he lifts her o their faces are next to each other. He lifts his eyebrows at Yoonji like, _See?_

Yoonji pretends to gasp as she covers the baby’s ears. “Don’t listen to him, Namsoon, you’re beautiful.”

Namjoon pouts and turns to Nara. “Nara, she’s bullying me in my own home.”

“You’re in your own home. She shouldn’t be able to.” Nara says haughtily, then she leans to peck him on the cheek. “Let’s go get Taehyung before Yoongi brings him home.”

When the couple walk off into a hallway talking quietly to each other, Yoonji turns to Jimin. “What time are _we_ going home?”

“In a while.” Jimin says. “I don’t think Jiwoo’s ready to let go of Jennie just yet.”

Yoonji buries her face in her hands. “Oh god, I really owe that girl a drink.”

“A _drink_?” Hoseok comes in swinging the car keys around one finger. “You owe her an entire distillery at this point.”

Yoonji gives him a stony glare. “Sure. I’ll ask Namjoon how much he’s selling his for.”

Hoseok slides a hand around her waist. “Where is she, anyway?”

“Jiwoo’s trying to adopt her.” Jimin says.

“I would, too, if she were still a minor.” Hoseok shrugs.

“Come on, we already have enough problems as it is.” Yoonji grumbles, pointing at her stomach.

“Don’t call her a problem.” Jimin snaps at her, patting Yoonji’s stomach gently.

Hoseok swings the keys around his finger. “Let’s name her Jennie.”

Yoonji scrunches up her nose, thinking about Namjoon’s continuous confusion between the Taehyungs, and Song Yoonji’s eternal confusion whenever people are talking about the ‘other’ Yoonji.

“How about we _not_?”

 

“No!”

Jisoo tries to hide a snicker, but she’s always been bad at that kind of thing. “Jennie doesn’t have any other ride home.”

Jiwoo wraps her arms around Jennie, and the little Yoonji follows suit, hugging one of Jennie’s legs. “She’s not leaving.”

“How are you getting home?” Jennie asks, patting Yoonji on the head to try and get her off her leg.

“My brother.” Jisoo says. “We don’t have any more space in the car, so you’ll have to go with Yoonji and her guys, sorry.”

“It’s okay, I don’t mind being a fourth wheel.” Jennie says, before stopping to frown at the engineering of it all.

“Okay, Yoonji, enough jokes, we have to let Jennie go.” Jiwoo says, prying her daughter off of Jennie’s poor leg. “She’ll come and visit us, won’t she?”

Jennie tries not to make a face. “I… uh… I’ll try?”

“You’d better.” Little Yoonji says.

 

“I thought Yoonji Jr. was never going to let go of you.” Jisoo laughs, holding the front door open for Jennie.

“Me too.” Jennie says. She starts for the car, where she can see Hoseok and Yoonji and Jimin already arguing about something – directions, probably – but then she stops and turns to Jisoo.

Jennie wants to say that she had a really good time today, and that she knows it’s only been a few days apart and that she understands why Jisoo doesn’t want to get back together, but she misses Jisoo just the same and wishes things could just be like this all the time.

_We’re going to need a_ lot _of beer for that to happen,_ Jennie thinks, smiling.

“I’ll be around to pick up my stuff.” Jisoo says.

“Okay.” Jennie says.

“I’ll leave my keys to the apartment, too.” Jisoo says. “It’d be really creepy of me to have a set.”

“Yeah.” Jennie says.

“I’ll see you… when I see you, I guess.”

“See you.”


	11. Jisoo’s Too Old For- DON’T INTERRUPT ME, JENNIE KIM!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I really like her,” Jeongyeon has a wide grin on her face as she turns the drama she’s watching to Jennie. “I haven’t watched any of her other stuff, but she’s _really_ good.”
> 
> Jennie nods vaguely, but the face on the screen and the voice coming out of the phone speakers and the halo and the white gown are all tumbling around in her mind like socks in a washing machine. 
> 
> Jennie realizes that she’s actually happy to see her after all this time. Jennie frowns at herself for ever thinking she would feel otherwise, then she finds herself chuckling at the cold stare the angel is giving the man she’s talking to. It’s a stare that Jennie’s been on the receiving end of too many times to count, and just seeing it again makes her smile like an idiot.
> 
> “Yeah, at first I thought the angel thing was pretty corny, but she pulls it off, I swear.” Jeongyeon holds up a hand like she’s taking an oath. “Her name’s Kim Jisoo. The actress, I mean.”
> 
> “I know.”

_Some time later_

Jennie jumps when the doorbell to the apartment rings, as if she _hadn’t_ been expecting someone for the past hour or so.

She undoes the deadbolt and tugs the door open. “Hi!”

“The goddamn building manager thought I was a _mover_.”

Jennie laughs while Jinyoung kicks his shoes off.

“First of all,” She says counting it off with her fingers. “The way you talk about blue-collar jobs is worryingly elitist. Second of all, the building manager is a great guy. Third of all, how the fuck could he think that when your sneakers are probably worth a month of his salary?”

“Right?” Jinyoung rolls his eyes. “Anyway, where’s the shit we need to bring down? My car’s double parked and I don’t wanna get a ticket.”

“Oh, here, and here,” Jennie starts dragging two boxes towards the door. “I already hired _real_ movers to bring the furniture-”

“Like _I’d_ carry furniture for you, Jennie Kim. I have limits.” Jinyoung scoffs. He’s about to pick up one of the boxes when he notices a third one in the corner. “What about this one?”

“Oh.” Jennie freezes in place for altogether too long.

Jinyoung’s already picking at the duct tape on the top flaps. “What’s in it?”

“That’s Jisoo’s stuff.”

Jinyoung stops scratching the tape and gives Jennie a slow, judgmental look. “Are you kidding me?”

“She hasn’t come by to pick it up-”

“When did you break up? Like, two years ago, right?” Jinyoung shakes his head. “This stuff is obviously unimportant to her, so you can throw it out-”

“I can’t _throw it out_!” Jennie says, jumping to stand protectively between Jinyoung and the box of Jisoo’s stuff. “I mean, her stuff’s too nice to throw out.”

“Then sell it online or something.” Jinyoung kicks the box. “This isn’t healthy.”

“Okay, I’ll figure out what to do with it-”

“Don’t tell me you’re bringing this to your new apartment.”

Jennie’s shoulders sag. “I can’t just throw it or leave it, Jinyoung, it’s _nice_ stuff.”

“There’s a thrift shop on the way to your new place.” Jinyoung crosses his arms. “Let’s drop it off.”

Jennie gapes at him for a moment. “I- I- I think some of the stuff in there is mine, I’ll go through it when I unpack everything tomorrow.”

Jinyoung heaves a sigh. “You’re hopeless.”

Jennie gives him a sad smile. He’s not entirely wrong. “Thanks, Jinyoung.”

 

Jennie feels just a little bit bad for watching the clock on the wall so intently, but the minute her replacement arrives and the clock ticks to the end of her shift, she pretty much dashes to the breakroom.

One of her classmates is sitting at the table eating crackers when Jennie gets there. Her eyes are glued to her phone screen as she slides the box of crackers across the table. “Crackers?”

“No thanks, Jeongyeon,” Jennie says, reaching for her purse and coat. “I’m going out for dinner.”

Jeongyeon doesn’t look away from her phone, but she lifts an eyebrow. “Got a date?”

“Nah, I’m meeting up with my college friends.” Jennie says. She grins when Jeongyeon just nods vaguely, still staring at her screen. “What’re you watching?”

“A web drama, _You Only Live Twice_.” Jeongyeon says through a mouthful of crackers. “It’s really good, you should watch it.”

Jennie leans to peek over Jeongyeon’s shoulder as she slips her coat on. It’s a pretty dark, rainy scene, and she can’t quite make out the actors’ faces. “How many episodes so far?”

“This is the eighth, but there’s a new one coming out tomorrow.” Jeongyeon says. “I’m just catching up cause I forgot what happened last week.”

Jennie’s about to say something when there’s a bright flash of light on the screen that makes her jump. The actors onscreen also shield their eyes as a figure descends from the sky. Jennie guesses it must be an angel, or some other sort of person with giant white bird wings.

“I really like her,” Jeongyeon has a wide grin on her face as she turns the phone to Jennie. “I haven’t watched any of her other stuff, but she’s _really_ good.”

Jennie nods vaguely, but the face on the screen and the voice coming out of the phone speakers and the halo and the white gown are all tumbling around in her mind like socks in a washing machine.

Jennie realizes that she’s actually happy to see her after all this time. Jennie frowns at herself for ever thinking she would feel otherwise, then she finds herself chuckling at the cold stare the angel is giving the man she’s talking to. It’s a stare that Jennie’s been on the receiving end of too many times to count, and just seeing it again makes her smile like an idiot.

“Yeah, at first I thought the angel thing was pretty corny, but she pulls it off, I swear.” Jeongyeon holds up a hand like she’s taking an oath. “Her name’s Kim Jisoo. The actress, I mean.”

“I know.”

 

“JENNIE KIIIIIIM!”

“Chaeyoung!” Jennie smiles as Chaeyoung breaks into a run down the sidewalk. She opens her arms expecting a Chaeyoung hug, which she hasn’t had in years. Then she realizes that Chaeyoung’s not the bird-boned featherweight Jennie remembers, just a little too late. Chaeyoung slams into Jennie and knocks her into the nearest lamppost, sending her purse flying.

“OH MY GOOOD!” Chaeyoung says, squeezing Jennie until something cracks around her ribs.

“Hi- Chae-” Jennie wheezes out.

“You’re going to kill her.” Lisa says calmly, picking up Jennie’s purse off the sidewalk. She quickly unzips it and starts rummaging around inside. “Got any snacks, Jennie?”

“Jesus. Hello, _Lisa_ ,” Jennie laughs, trying to grab her purse back. “Give me my purse.”

“What am I supposed to do? It’s way past _my_ dinnertime.” Lisa pulls out a half-eaten sandwich and peels back the wrapper, giving it a long sniff. “Yikes.”

“Don’t bother with that,” Jennie plucks the sandwich out of Lisa’s hand and throws it into the nearest trash can. “Let’s get real food.”

Jennie pushes open the door to the restaurant. Some waiter she’s never seen before comes up to greet her, but then again, she hasn’t been back here in a while.

“Hi, we have a reservation under Jennie Kim.” Jennie says, and the way the waiter’s mouth twists is more than a little worrying.

“Reservation?”

“For a function room.” Jennie says. “I spoke to Mr. Jung over the phone-”

“Oh, I’m not sure, ma’am,” The waiter scratches behind his ear. “Our manager’s out for his daughter’s birthday today.”

Chaeyoung and Lisa turn to Jennie with their eyes wide, mouthing, ‘Daughter???’

“You know what, whatever, we’ll just get any table for three.” Jennie says, waving her hand.

“Four.” Chaeyoung blurts out.

It’s Jennie’s turn to gape at Chaeyoung.

“Fucks’ sake, Chaeyoung.” Lisa mutters under her breath, looking up at the ceiling.

The waiter looks just about as lost as Jennie as he stammers out, “S- So, ah, uh, t-table for four?”

Jennie cocks an eyebrow up. “I don’t know, who-”

“Yes, please.” Chaeyoung says, her face quickly becoming the same color as her lipstick. “Thanks.”

 

Jennie tries not to groan as she settles into her seat. Lisa and Chaeyoung are busy whispering agitatedly with each other, so Jennie takes the opportunity to slip her feet out of her shoes just a little bit. She’d been standing for hours at the hospital, and she never seems to notice her feet ache until her shift is up.

_Then I start feeling old._ Jennie thinks, looking across the table. Lisa’s hair is a respectably dark color for a change, and swept out of her face, while Chaeyoung’s become all curves and dimples. _We’re_ all _old_.

“Who else is coming?” Jennie asks, though she has her suspicions.

“We…We invited Jisoo.” Chaeyoung bites her lip. “ _I_ wanted to ask you first, but Lisa said it’s not a problem-”

Lisa kicks her under the table with her pointy heels. “Don’t make it my fault, it’s not my fault-”

Chaeyoung stomps on Lisa’s toes with her platform wedges. “ _I_ said we should consider their feelings-”

“It’s been ages-” Lisa insists through gritted teeth, but her eyes are clearly watering from Chaeyoung’s wedges. “-And they’re both adults, they’ll be fine-”

Chaeyoung shoots a nervous look in Jennie’s direction before kicking Lisa in the shin. “You can’t just assume-”

“It’s okay, Chae.” Jennie says. “Lisa’s right. We’re fine.”

“See?” Lisa crosses her arms and leans back with a smug smile. “I _told_ you they were reasonable. They’ve probably talked it over and everything.”

“Um.” Jennie grimaces. “We haven’t.”

“What?” Chaeyoung stands up indignantly.

“I haven’t talked to Jisoo since…” Jennie trails off, because the door to the restaurant’s just swung open to reveal a very flustered woman in a cap and face mask. The woman flips her hair out of her cap and takes off her face mask to talk to the waiter, who’s suddenly started stammering twice as much.

Chaeyoung and Lisa had had their backs to the door, but they’d seen the weird, glazed-over expression on Jennie’s face. They spin around at once, with the all subtlety of a traffic cone.

“Oh god here we go.” Lisa mutters.

“Hi Jisoo!” Chaeyoung says overenthusiastically.

“Hi Chae, sorry I’m so late,” Jisoo says, accepting a much milder Chaeyoung hug than the one Jennie had gotten. “Hi Lisa.”

“Hey, Jisoo.” Lisa shoots her two finger guns.

Jisoo turns and it’s as if she notices Jennie just then. Their eyes meet, and both their expressions are so blank and shocked that they have no other choice than to laugh.

“Hi Jennie.” Jisoo says, sitting down next to her.

“Hi Jisoo.” Jennie says.

Chaeyoung releases a sigh of relief so extreme that she seems to fold in half, and Lisa stops sweating furiously.

“Have you guys ordered yet?” Jisoo asks.

“Yeah, we’re just getting the usual-” Chaeyoung shifts in her seat. “I mean, the stuff we used to get back in college. Noodles and everything.”

Lisa inspects Jisoo’s frame with an elevator look. “You’re on a diet, aren’t you?”

“No, I- I mean, of course I am,” Jisoo laughs. “But I already ate, so I’m probably just gonna have a coffee or something.”

“No.” Chaeyoung says with an aggressive growl in her voice. “You’re going to eat real food.”

“Really!” Jisoo insists. “I came from Yoonji’s kid’s birthday party! I have photos!”

Chaeyoung’s mouth drops open. “ _Yoonji has a kid_???”

“Yeah.” Jisoo beams like a typical aunt. “She just turned two.”

“Dude.” Lisa snorts. “Who did you think Mr. Jung’s kid was?”

“Okay, _sorry_ , it took me a while to connect the dots.” Chaeyoung makes a face at Lisa before nearly leaning across the table to grab Jisoo by the shirtsleeve. “Baby pictures! Now!”

Jisoo starts digging through her purse for her phone, accidentally elbowing Jennie. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Jennie mumbles, reaching for her cup of water. Her throat’s suddenly gone dry and scratchy, though she’s pretty sure she didn’t catch anything from the hospital.

“Here she is,” Jisoo says, bringing up her camera roll before handing her phone to Chaeyoung.

Jennie catches a glimpse of a very small girl in a knitted beanie sticking her tongue out at the camera.

Chaeyoung squeals. “Oh my god, she’s so pretty!”

“Of course she is, Yoonji’s pretty fucking _pretty_.” Lisa says defensively.

Chaeyoung flips through the photos like a woman possessed, stomping her wedges excitedly on the poor tiled floor. “She’s so cute I could _hurt_ someone!”

“Not me, please.” Lisa scoots her chair around the corner of the table. She pulls Jennie towards her. “Hurt Jennie.”

Jennie shrugs Lisa’s hands off, laughing. “Could I see?”

Chaeyoung hands her the phone.

Jennie finds a photo of Yoonji carrying her daughter on her shoulders while said daughter tears up the streamers hanging from the ceiling. Hoseok’s to one side laughing, while Jimin’s standing next to Yoonji, looking stressed. His mouth’s open, and Jennie assumes he must be telling Yoonji to put their daughter down or something.

“What’s her name?” Jennie asks.

“Ryujin.” Jisoo says, and Jennie doesn’t need to look to see that she’s smiling. “Min Ryujin.”

Jennie swipes to the next photo, and there’s a young teenage girl she doesn’t recognize carrying Ryujin. “Is this Yoojung?”

“Yeah. She had a growth spurt over the summer.” Jisoo reaches over to swipe to the next photo. “And that’s Sanha and Soobin-”

“Soobin’s _gigantic_.” Jennie says, leaning in to squint at the phone. “He’s almost as tall as Sanha, what the hell?”

“Yeah, well,” Jisoo shrugs. “He eats a lot.”

“Another baby?” Chaeyoung gasps, pushing back her chair to run over and look over Jennie’s shoulder. “Oh my god he’s so cuuute!”

“Whose is it?” Lisa asks, looking over Jennie’s other shoulder.

“They’re my brother’s kids.” Jisoo says proudly.

“They’re so adorable oh my gooood,” Chaeyoung squeezes Jisoo’s arm.

“Yeah, they’re really cute.” Jennie agrees, handing the phone back to Jisoo. “Thanks.”

Their fingers brush against each other for a second, then Jisoo draws her hand away to tuck her phone back into her bag. Jennie turns away, reaching for her cup of water to take another gulp she doesn’t need.

Lisa leans back in her seat. “Oh god, look at us, screaming about babies. We’re so _crusty_ and ancient.”

“I have _always_ screamed about babies,” Chaeyoung says matter-of-factly.

“Okay, fine, but we used to also scream about, I don’t know…” Lisa shrugs. “Dick?”

“Lisa, this is a family restaurant.” Jisoo says sharply.

Lisa cups her hands around her mouth. “DICK!”

Jennie clamps a hand over Lisa’s mouth. “Lisa, you don’t even _like_ dick.”

Lisa grumbles something against Jennie’s hand.

Jennie feels something wet against her palm. “Oh hell _no_.” She pulls her hand away and wipes it furiously on some tissue.

Lisa crosses her arms triumphantly. “Hah.”

Jisoo frowns at the crisp suit Lisa’s wearing. “I still can _not_ imagine you in an office.”

Jennie reaches into her bag for some sanitizer to spray on her hand. “Where do you work again?”

“An oil company. Boring stuff.” Lisa waves a hand.

“That oil company’s the reason why I had to fly over here in the first place.” Chaeyoung says.

“Why?” Jennie asks, catching Lisa roll her eyes.

Chaeyoung rolls _her_ eyes. “ _Her_ boss just claimed like, two hectares of coral reef that’s _my_ organization’s been trying to rehabilitate-”

“Well, okay,” Lisa holds up a hand to stop Chaeyoung. “But technically, he bought it from the locals.”

“Whom he was threatening with his personal military-!”

“Hold on,” Jennie frowns. “Can you even _buy_ coral reefs?”

“Yes!” Lisa says.

“No!” Chaeyoung says immediately after. “And it’s an ancestral fishing ground-”

Lisa scrunches up her face. “Which the ancestors’ descendants decided to sell-”

“I mean, if he bought legally, then he can do with it what he wants, right?” Jisoo asks.

“Right!” Lisa says.

“You can’t seriously be taking the multinational oil conglomerate’s side over a bunch of fishermen.” Chaeyoung gasps. “Lisa’s boss is basically a textbook Disney villain.”

“All I’m saying is, when you sell something to someone, you’re giving up whatever control you had over the way it’s used.” Jisoo says.

Lisa lifts her eyebrows. “Is that what happened to your company?”

Jisoo lets out a dry chuckle. “Yeah, the guy who bought it ran it into the ground.”

“But this isn’t just some online store! This is thousands of square kilometers of living, breathing animals!” Chaeyoung squeaks out indignantly. “Our duty to protect the planet comes before whatever economical _bullshit_ -”

“Chae,” Jennie says gently, putting a hand over Chaeyoung’s, which is trembling with anger. She nods subtly at the other people around the restaurant who’ve started giving them weird looks. “I agree with you completely and I hope you guys defeat the gross oil people-”

“Hey.” Lisa says.

“-But we’re here to have a nice dinner with friends,” Jennie goes on, and she doesn’t look Jisoo’s way as she says, “Friends that we haven’t seen in _ages_. So can we leave everything else aside for just a few hours?”

Chaeyoung still looks upset, but she shuts her mouth and settles back into her seat. Lisa and Jisoo look away guiltily.

The waiter appears at that moment with their food, and each clatter of the plates on the table seems deafening in the silence. He hovers by the table, wringing his hands. “I- Is your order c-complete, ma’am?”

“Yes, thank you.” Jennie says, giving as kind a smile as she can.

She looks back at her friends, but they all seem to be looking everywhere but each other. Jennie sighs as she looks down at the jjajangmyeon before her. She remembers the food here being greasier, and the restaurant smelling a lot like reused oil, but the plate of noodles in front of her looks polished and actually appetizing. Which, she guesses, is good, but it feels weird.

_Like the idea of Lisa working in corporate._

“I, uh, I saw Kihyun the other day.” Jisoo says suddenly.

Jennie turns to her, though the other two don’t. “Who?”

“You remember Kihyun, the barista at that café we used to study at?”

“Oh, yeah, him.” Lisa says.

“He was cute.” Chaeyoung says.

“Where’d you see him?” Jennie asks.

“He was running a coffee truck um, on set.” Jisoo’s face flushes suddenly.

Jennie frowns. “What happened?”

“Nothing. He just recognized me. He asked me about you guys.” Jisoo’s face goes completely red as she turns it down to face her lap. “And I didn’t know what to say.”

Chaeyoung looks up, blinking hard. “Why not?”

“I… I didn’t know where you guys were or what you were doing. I mean, I see the stuff you guys post, but I don’t really check my feed much because…” Jisoo takes a deep breath. “Sorry.”

“I didn’t know what you guys were up to, either.” Lisa mumbles. She turns to give Chaeyoung a half-smile. “I was actually surprised to see you at that meeting.”

“Me too.” Chaeyoung says. “Well, how am I supposed to keep up when you change job every 3 months?”

“I get bored easily, but you already knew that.” Lisa pouts. “And anyway, I’ve been planning to resign for a while now. You’re right, my boss is really a Disney villain.”

Chaeyoung nudges Lisa in the shin. “I think we could use a corporate bitch on our side.”

Lisa snorts. “Oh, no way am I going to live on an NGO salary.”

Jennie realizes that Jisoo’s been looking at her for some time now.

“Well, I don’t know why you wouldn’t know where I am.” Jennie says, poking at her jjajangmyeon. “I’m still in med school.”

“Oh right, you’re the only one of us who actually went.” Lisa snickers.

“I really admire you, Jennie.” Chaeyoung says. “You’re going to help a lot of people.”

Jennie smiles. “Thanks. It’s just kinda easy to forget that when I’m tanking so many exams.”

“But you’re looking better than when we saw you the other year.” Lisa says. She waggles her eyebrows. “Are you seeing someone?”

“ _Lisa_.” Chaeyoung hisses, her eyes darting in Jisoo’s direction.

“No, it’s okay, I don’t care. There’s nothing to know there.” Jennie laughs dryly. “I’ve started doing yoga, though.”

“Oh, I’ve wanted to try yoga for a while now,” Chaeyoung says.

“You should, it’s really good.” Jennie says. She feels Jisoo shifting around in the seat next to her. She realizes that she’s fine with Lisa being so… blunt and typically _Lisa_ about their relationship, but maybe Jisoo isn’t.

“Let’s start eating, the food’s getting cold.” Jisoo says.

 

“How are you getting back to your hotel?” Lisa asks, one arm slung around Chaeyoung’s shoulders as they step out of the restaurant.

“I’m taking a taxi.” Chaeyoung shrugs. “You?”

Lisa fishes around her purse. “I think I’ve got a company credit card here somewhere… Wouldn’t you rather that the oil company pays for our taxi?”

“But it’d have to loop all the way around- _Oh_.” Chaeyoung smirks when she realizes what Lisa’s implying. “Okay, yes. Absolutely.”

She turns back to Jennie and Jisoo, who’d been walking behind them, a few paces apart from each other. Chaeyoung sighs. There’s a part of her that’s still a little bit hurt over them, and seeing them together like this but _not_ together is making her heart ache. _Or maybe it’s just acid reflux from all the food I ate._

“How are you guys getting home?” She asks.

“I have a car.” Jennie says.

Jisoo perks up at that, lifting one eyebrow at Jennie. “You do?”

“Yeah.” Jennie frowns at her. “Do you need a lift- I mean, sorry, stupid me, you _obviously_ have a car.”

“I just sold mine, actually.” Jisoo says. “I was gonna grab a coffee then taxi home. You guys wanna get coffee?”

“I’d love to, but I have a meeting early tomorrow,” Lisa gives them an apologetic smile.

“I’ve got to go to the same meeting.” Chaeyoung giggles. “So it’s a pass from me, too. Let’s get coffee when I’m back in town!”

“Sure.” Jisoo says.

“And you’re paying, ‘cause you’re the celebrity.” Lisa says.

“ _Lisa_!”

Jennie laughs with them, feeling her phone buzz in her bag. She starts digging around in her purse to check it. When she does, there are around a hundred new messages from her classmates worrying about a test they have the next day, but that’s not what made her phone buzz. Jinyoung had texted her, and another new text from him comes in just as she’s about to read it.

              Jinyoung: Can’t drop by tomorrow morning, sorry. Can I come on Sunday morning instead?

              Jinyoung: Jennie Kim notice me

“What’s up?”

Jennie sends a quick ‘Ok’ before looking up to find Chaeyoung and Lisa have gone. Jisoo’s just standing a couple steps away on the sidewalk, watching Jennie curiously.

“Oh.” Jennie slips her phone back into her purse. “You didn’t go with them?”

“Can you imagine the headache my agency would get if I was caught using a multinational oil company’s credit card?”

Jennie laughs. “I can.”

“Also, I really need that coffee. What about you?”

Jennie’s about to beg off, since she has an exam in the morning and she hasn’t really got everything down yet. _But there will be other exams. When will I get to see Jisoo outside of Jeongyeon’s phone screen again?_

“Sure.” Jennie says. “I’m parked this way.”

 

Jisoo closes the door behind her and reaches for her seatbelt. There are a lot of things she thinks she ought to say, but she ends up saying, “This is a really nice car.”

_Nice, Jisoo. Nailed it._

“Thanks, but it’s not mine.” Jennie says as she starts the car. “I’m just borrowing it from Jinyoung.”

Jisoo turns to Jennie, frowning. “ _What_? Didn’t you get mad at _me_ for letting my friends borrow my-”

“He lent it to me to help me move apartments.” Jennie says. “And I’m paying for all the gas I use. Unlike your friends.”

Jisoo folds her hands guiltily in her lap. She wonders if Jennie means their apartment, that she’d been living there alone all this time, and Jisoo just can’t imagine it.

“Where do you want to get coffee?” Jennie asks.

“Oh, the uh, I like the café on the corner of Bank and Commerce, by the Trade building.” Jisoo says, picking the farthest coffee shop she can think of. “Forgot the name.”

“Okay.” Jennie says, setting up a route on her phone.

Jisoo leans on the armrest by the window, pretending to be interested in the lights outside, but she’s just trying to catch Jennie’s reflection in the glass.

“How are-” She starts, but decides to say instead, “How’s Jinyoung these days? He never seemed like the type to lend his car out.”

“Oh he’s a lot different now.” Jennie says, turning the corner with one hand, and it makes Jisoo feel a little funny. “He organizes a ton of regular medical missions, and he spends his weekends with kids at orphanages and stuff like that. I mean, he’s still a little bitch, but he really goes out of his way to help people.”

“So he’s campaigning for sainthood now, got it.” Jisoo says.

Jennie laughs. “ _Campaigning for sainthood_. That’s a good one. I’ll tell him that.”

Jisoo’s still facing the window when she asks, “What about you?”

“Do I go with him? Yeah, I try to, but I don’t think I have as much energy as him.” Jennie shrugs. “Maybe if I didn’t go to yoga as much, I’d be able to- Wow, I sound like an asshole.”

Jisoo just hums noncommittally. She doesn’t believe Jennie could ever be an asshole, but she’s not about to say that out loud.

“My life’s pretty boring, but yours seems pretty cool.” Jennie says, and Jisoo can feel her glance at Jisoo for a moment. “My friend was watching your drama awhile ago, uh… _You Live Twice_?”

“Oh, that.” Jisoo’s cheeks burn. “It’s just a web drama.”

“It’s my friend’s favorite show. She’s been hard-selling it to everyone she meets, so I guess it must be a pretty good web drama.” Jennie says.

“I guess.”

“What’s your brother say about it?”

“The drama?” Jisoo shrugs. “I don’t think he knows how to watch web dramas.”

Jennie chuckles. “No, I meant acting in general. Does he find it weird?”

“Oh, that.” Jisoo grips the door handle. She fields interviews regularly these days, and can even make her way through press conferences without breaking a sweat. _So why am I so fucking uncomfortable right now_? “You know my brother. He’s really supportive, obviously. He loves giving unsolicited advice.”

Jennie laughs. “I guess acting runs in the family, huh?”

“We just found a way to monetize our being drama queens.”

Jennie chortles, missing a turn.

“Oh crap.”

The phone beeps as it calculates a new route.

“Sorry.” Jisoo grimaces, watching the phone draw out a much longer route around one-way streets. “I should probably shut up.”

“No, no, it’s my fault.” Jennie says, slowing to a stop at an intersection. She grins, her face lit up red by the stoplight. “I forgot how funny you were.”

Jisoo finds her eyes tracing the lines on Jennie’s face. She’s worked with much prettier actresses, but there’s just _something_ about Jennie’s face that doesn’t let Jisoo look away.

“What is it?” Jennie turns to her, eyebrows raised.

“N- Nothing.” Jisoo looks down at the console, then leans back in her seat and looks down at her lap.

“Jisoo,” Jennie’s voice is gentler, quieter, and altogether worse for Jisoo’s wellbeing. “I-”

Jisoo looks up just as the light on their faces turns to a bright, blinding green. Jennie blinks in surprise, then shuts her mouth and looks back at the road as she steps on the gas.

_What are you even doing, Jisoo? Why are you wasting Jennie’s time like this?_

Jisoo studies Jennie’s face again, since the latter is busy trying to look over the car ahead to see if she can overtake it. Most of her brother’s unsolicited advice was outdated and useless to Jisoo, except for one: _Your private life doesn’t exist anymore. So if you really care about someone, you’ll think twice about dragging them down with you._

“Jennie.”

“Yeah?” Jennie says, tapping the wheel impatiently. “This guy must be texting or something.”

“Jennie, I’ve changed my mind.” Jisoo says. “I don’t want that coffee after all.”

“Huh?”

“You can just drop me off wherever I can get a taxi.”

Jennie frowns at Jisoo so hard she almost forgets to accelerate when the cars start moving again. “N- No, it’s okay, I’ll bring you wherever you need to go. Are you going home?”

“That’s really nice, of you, Jennie, but I’m sure you’re tired and I’m not going to make you drive out to my place.” Jisoo says. “It’s a bit out of the way.”

“It’s really fine.” Jennie says. “Besides, I kinda like the feel of Jinyoung’s car. I feel so powerf-”

“Jennie, I just don’t feel comfortable with us being alone like this.” Jisoo says. “I didn’t wanna say it, but that’s how it-”

“You’re the one who insisted on getting coffee halfway across the city-”

“I know, and it was a mistake.” Jisoo says. “So can you please pull over so I can take a taxi?”

Jennie wets her lips and opens her mouth to say something, but she just reaches for the turn signal. “Yeah, I’m not about to hold you hostage. Imagine what the headlines would be like. _Crazy med student kidnaps actress Kim Jisoo._ ”

Jisoo tries to smile, but her chest hurts a little as Jennie gently brings the car to a stop at the side of the road.

Jennie hits the hazard lights. “I’ll wait until you get a taxi.”

Jisoo doesn’t move. “Jennie…”

Jennie’s watching the sideview mirror. “I think there’s one coming up-”

“Jennie, how are you, really?” Jisoo asks. “You’re fine?”

“Yeah.” Jennie frowns at Jisoo as the taxi drives past them. “Are you?”

“Yes.” Jisoo finds herself breaking into a smile. It’s a relief to be able to answer that honestly, and for the answer to be positive for a change. “I am. I really love my job, and my nieces and nephews, and everything. Even the bad days.”

Jennie looks into Jisoo’s eyes for a long time. “I’m so glad to hear that.”

Another taxi passes them by.

“And um, I don’t know how to say this, but I’ve met a lot of people,” Jisoo says. “And I don’t think I’ll ever meet another Jennie Kim.”

Jennie’s smile drops. “What… do you mean?”

“I’ve been really lucky lately, and I don’t know when it’ll run out or what I’ll do when it does. But anyway,” Jisoo swallows. Suddenly, her mouth doesn’t seem to know how to talk despite her doing that _all day_ at work. “I guess I didn’t realize how lucky I was before. And I-”

“Jisoo.” Jennie cuts in. “Be careful with what you say.”

“I know, I know, I’m not going to hurt you anymore.” Jisoo says. “I just wanted to thank you. You were so good to me, and I don’t think I was ever able to be as good to you.”

Jennie turns to her window, resting her face on her tightly wound fist.

“So I’ll just go now before I say something and ruin everything.” Jisoo adds quickly, grabbing her bag as she unclips her seatbelt. She opens the door to the car and steps out.

“Wait, Jisoo.”

Jisoo stops obediently in her tracks. “Yeah?”

“You still have a box of stuff in my apartment.” Jennie says.

It’s Jisoo’s turn to frown. “In your _new_ apartment? You brought it with you?”

“I- It was already packed away back when,” Jennie takes a sharp breath. “When you said you would come by to pick it up.”

“Oh. Oh my god.” Jisoo buries her face in her palm. “I completely forgot, I’m sorry. Just text me your address, I’ll send someone to pick it up. My number’s still the same.”

Jennie just nods, still turned away from Jisoo.

Jisoo doesn’t know what to say, but she decides she’s been enough of a jerk for one night. She closes the car door and starts walking down the street, caught in the blinking of Jennie’s hazard lights.

She extends a hand to call an approaching taxi over. She doesn’t dare look back at the car, because she doesn’t want to see Jennie’s face.

Jisoo opens the door to the taxi and steps in, giving the driver the address of a 24-hour café half a block away from her apartment. Maybe she needs that coffee, after all.

Her brother’s words keep echoing in her head as the taxi driver starts down the avenue.

_…if you really care about someone, you’ll think twice…_

Jisoo shuts her eyes. _Damn is my brother’s voice annoying._

“Sorry, but can you please stop the car?”

The taxi driver makes a face. “Wha-?”

“Here.” Jisoo reaches into the front pocket of her bag and dumps a few bills she doesn’t bother to count in the cupholder. “Thank you so much, Mr. Taxi Driver, sir.”

She opens the car door and starts running down the sidewalk, her bag and cardigan swinging around like church bells. She’s starting to think she’s overestimated herself, because Jennie’s car with its blinking lights is just a tiny blinking dot down the avenue and Jisoo’s heels seem ready to snap at any moment.

Still, she keeps running. Maybe someone in one of the cars driving by recognizes her and wonders why Kim Jisoo’s sprinting down the sidewalk like this so late at night. Maybe someone gets a video, even.

Jisoo doesn’t care.

The hazard lights stop blinking, and the car starts moving.

“No!” Jisoo screams, running even faster. “Dammit, Jennie! Fucking-”

The car speeds up, and Jisoo’s afraid she’s going to just drive by and Jisoo’ll have wasted all of her breath. Then it pulls up to the sidewalk, and Jisoo feels ready to collapse.

Jennie comes out and around the car. “Did you leave something?”

Jisoo can only shake her head. She’s doubled over, gasping for air with one hand against one of the skinny trees along the avenue.

“Oh god, you could’ve just texted whatever you wanted to say,” Jennie says, putting one hand gingerly on Jisoo’s back. “My number’s still the same.”

Jisoo coughs, and Jennie pats her back gently.

“Uh, deep breaths, Jisoo,” Jennie says, hovering around like she isn’t going to be a licensed doctor in a few years. “You, uh, probably shouldn’t have Usain Bolted over like that.”

Jisoo gulps a lungful of air and shoots a judgey look at Jennie. “That’s such an outdated reference.”

“Oh good, you’re okay.” Jennie laughs.

Jisoo shakes her head as she straightens out, still leaning on the tree for support. “Wow, that was stupid. New record for Usain _Dolt_.”

Jennie laughs. “Why’d you do that anyway?”

“God, I don’t know.” Jisoo turns and leans her back against the tree. She’s drowning in her own sweat, and her face is burning for more reasons than one. “Because I’m stupid.”

“You’re not, but okay,” Jennie’s standing a meter away, arms crossed nervously. “I guess you need a ride home?”

“I just-” Jisoo gasps for air like a dying fish. “I had to say something.”

“Okay, go ahead.” Jennie says, but she steps back warily.

“Don’t interrupt me.”

“I won’t.”

Jisoo narrows her eyes at Jennie, but she knows that when Jennie promises something, she probably means it. _Unlike some Jisoos I know._

“Okay, so,” Jisoo clears her throat, which feels like it’s having an asthma attack. “I know we broke up ages ago, and it was settled and there was nothing left to argue or anything. And I know it was because I was complete mess back then and I didn’t have anything together. And – Don’t interrupt me, Jennie Kim!”

Jennie closes her mouth again and gestures for Jisoo to go on.

“So I don’t think it was a mistake, really, but now that I do have things kinda together it would be super douchey of me to even ask if you wanna try again, especially with my current situation, so I’m not gonna do that – _DON’T INTERRUPT ME, JENNIE KIM!_ ”

Jennie nods and closes her mouth.

“So…” Jisoo rubs her temples. “I completely lost my train of thought.”

“You said you’re not gonna ask if we can try again.” Jennie whispers, like she’s feeding Jisoo a line.

“Right. Of course. You’re really so smart, you know that?” Jisoo takes another breath. “Anyway, what the _fuck_? Why did I say that?”

“I don’t know.”

“Of course not, how should you know?” Jisoo tugs at the ends of her hair because she feels like screaming. “I meant to say, that I think we should start over. From scratch.”

“W- What?”

“Hi.” Jisoo says, extending her hand abruptly between them. “I’m Kim Jisoo.”

Jennie stands there for an entire minute, looking from Jisoo’s hand to Jisoo’s sweaty, agitated face.

“Hi Jisoo.” Jennie says slowly, reaching out to shake Jisoo’s hand. “I’m Jennie Kim.”

“Cool name, Jennie.” Jisoo says. “You must’ve gotten it from a really cool person.”

“Yeah.” Jennie grins. “The kind of cool person who runs an entire kilometer in the middle of the night in heels for no apparent reason.”

Jisoo gasps. “Screw you.”

“That’s not a nice thing to say to someone you’ve just met.”

Jisoo sighs and leans against the tree, sliding down the tree dramatically. She snags on the bark, on her way down. “Ow ow ow.”

Jennie snorts and takes Jisoo’s arms to help her up. “Come on, drama queen.”

“ _That’s not a nice thing to say to someone you’ve just met_.” Jisoo says, mimicking Jennie’s voice badly.

“Okay,” Jennie says. “How about this: Let’s get coffee?”

“Sure.” Jisoo tries brushing the tree bits off her back, but she’s not flexible enough. “Let’s get to know each other over coffee.”

Jennie turns Jisoo around and brushes her shirt off. “Then it’s a good thing we only have a few years to catch up on, we already know the rest.”

Jisoo turns around to face Jennie, frowning at her. 

"W- What's wrong?" Jennie asks. "Did I say something-"

Jisoo tucks her face into Jennie’s shoulder, putting her arms around Jennie.

“I missed you so much.” Jisoo mumbles.

Jennie jumps with a start, but she quickly brushes her hands off on her jeans and puts them around Jisoo.

“I missed you too, drama queen.”

“Hey!” Jisoo frowns into Jennie’s sweater.

“Am I wrong? Who told you to go running around like you’re in some movie or something?”

“Stop it.” Jisoo whines.

“Okay, I’ll stop.” Jennie says. “But you’re paying for the coffee, drama queen.”

Jisoo opens her mouth to protest, but she just scowls, digging her chin into Jennie’s shoulder. Or, at least, she tries to scowl for as long as she can.

"Fine." She says finally, letting Jennie take her hand with a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end!!! [I’m leaving you with the song Habits by Day6 because it’s just right for this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKjkySQ1wpM)
> 
> I felt it would be best for everyone involved (myself, especially) if I left the ending a little bit open like this, the cheesiest corniest most dramalike ending I have ever written. I don’t have anything else planned for the super bloated, extremely large Modern Love cast at the moment, so I guess this is my goodbye to this series. Huge thanks to everyone who supported this series, I really, really appreciate everything. I was in a really bad place while writing a lot of it, but writing all this trash helped me through, and I hope the fic helps you through whatever you’re going through, too. I’m pretty sure every character has said “We’re going to be okay” at least once in the entire series, and I really believe that.


End file.
